Instrument News

September 2012 – content

Life Sciences

DVS collaborates with cloud computing specialist

Intuitive Biosciences acquires assets from protein array specialist

Neogen acquires animal genomics business

Life Technologies makes two purchases in molecular diagnostics field

Transgenomic is new parent Gene Logic

Nanosphere exceeds fund raising target

Roche gives Cellavista back to original inventor

Waters signs partner for complex MS data sets

Wheaton adds to its cell culture lines

Douglas Scientific gains large collaboration partner

Axela signs first European distribution partners                                   

Laboratory

Kanomax becomes majority shareholder of MSI Tokyo

Göttfert opens joint-venture firm in India

Hanna signs up new distribution partners

LUM moves into new headquarters

Particle Measuring Systems turns 40

PI continues integration of miCos

Artel celebrates its 30th anniversary

Picarro raises $7 million in funding round

SiliCycle stocks up on LC column know-how

MOCON establishes certified lab network

EKS expands flow reactor portfolio                                                           

Process & hand-held

TeraView explores new markets

Baird invests in e2v non-core businesses

Teledyne expands sonar imaging portfolio with acquisition                       

Features

AAS, ICP and ICP-MS: overlaps but no complete substitutions

Financials

­­­­Life science firms warn of headwinds

Life Tech trims guidance

Tecan profit takes a tumble

Illumina earnings slip on charge

Danaher maintains momentum

Luminex profit hit by costs

Losses, but Fluidigm beats on sales

Qiagen ups guidance

Affymetrix returns to profit

Economic headwinds hits demand for process firms

Newport cautious, but shares pop

Grace beats on adjusted profit

Danaher up on instrument sales

Ametek looks to acquisitions despite slowdown

FLIR reports a difficult quarter

MKS hit by weak chip spending

Teledyne grows instrument sales

Appointments

August 2012 – content

Life Science

Denator completes sixth round of financing

Luminex buys late-stage PCR platform

Thermo Fisher continues expansion of diagnostics portfolio

SIAL buys buffer provider

Agilent completes Dako deal

Avacta combines operations in single site

WaferGen cuts positions in commercial redirection

Knome launches early access programme

General Laboratory

Spectro relocates headquarters

First sales partner for nanoLiter

Verder Group buys Carbolite

Brechbühler doubles size of company

Porvair adds two companies to Microfiltration

AJ invests in foreign markets and subsidiaries

Leybold Vacuum expands sites in Asia

Edwards changes location of IPO

Two new distributors signed by Advion

Thermo Fisher sells laboratory furniture business

LGC invests in US expansion

FEI buys Korean partner

Waters starts work on MS HQs

Leica takes on direct distribution in NW US

Process & hand-held instrumentation

Princeton Security sold by management

Xylem buys MJK Automation

Sartorius expands in Puerto Rico

Feature

Instrument markets suffer from uncertain economy

Financials

Funding cutbacks still hold back life science firms

Gerresheimer grows despite European weakness

Weak US cannot hold back Merck Millipore

Biotage returns to growth

Competitive pressures hit Roche’s sequencing instruments

Gen-Probe ahead of targets

Emerging markets keep laboratory firms growing

Stronger growth puts Analytik Jena back in the black

Shimadzu earnings slide as European weakness hits sales

Skyray’s profit plunges on costs

Horiba raises guidance

Tosoh grows on overseas demand

Eurozone troubles worry process firms

Medical analysis demand drives HHT

Pall hit by weak lab demand and supply chain problems

Dynasil drops to a loss on costs

Strong US demand drives Parker

Mocon earnings slide on acquisition costs

Appointments

July 2012 – Leaderboard issue

Life Science News

Nimblegen activities to be stopped

PacBio signs exclusive Japanese partner

Qiagen to expand into next-sequencing market with purchase

Prosolia partners with AB Sciex

Complete Genomics considers strategic options

Helicos continues to maximise on its IP estate

Shimadzu extends OEM deal

General Lab

Eltra purchase sparks row

Retsch opens new headquarters

Agilent adds to measurement business

Formulaction is seeking additions to in-house technology base

TA Instruments expands in Germany

Good growth at Wasatch since 2010

Hitachi High Technology buys Japanese instrument business

Doe & Ingalls expands Thermo Fisher customer channel business

Mitegen consolidates product line

SP Scientific expands lyophiliser agreement with Praxair

Izon expands nanopore patent cover

Ocean Optics in spectrometer co-development deal

Process & hand-held instrumentation

Edinburgh Instruments launches gas monitor line

E&H goes into gas analysis market with acquisition

Bluesens contemplates headquarter move

Feature

IN Leaderboard

2011: a good year for many, but path ahead looks murky

Financials

GE notes stronger US market for life science products

Cepheid stumbles to another loss

Harvard earnings slip on costs

Sequenom sees instruments slip

Arrayit sales plummet in Q1

Transgenomic falls short as LIMS glitch hits lab business

GE benefits from strong US demand

Complete Genomics casts about for options as costs spiral

Strong sales, but Fluidigm misses

Lab firms find it harder going in the first quarter

VWR down on instruments

Porvair up on bioscience demand

Sigma grows in emerging regions

Waters slips in emerging markets

Agilent’s profit impresses

Biohit purchase boosts Sartorius

Alpha MOS losses double

Security firms report major spending rebound

Xylem earnings droop on costs

Smiths Detection ahead

Roper ahead of targets again

Analogic benefits from airport security rebound

Security recovery drives record HAPSITE sales

Radiation detection sales boost Princeton Gamma-Tech

Weak instrument sales for Intevac

Teradyne shares pop on beat

Appointments

June 2012 – content

Life Science News

Agilent makes bid for stake in diagnostics market

Innopsys enters co-marketing deal

Integra re-incorporates Valdea

Affymetrix reduces deal price

PBI “to start selling aggressively in 2012”

Asian distributors for CM Technologies

IntegenX buys CGE consumables from GE Healthcare

Affymetrix and ScreenCell in distribution deal

BioScale raises funds by selling debt

Hamilton automates 454 enrichment

ONT raises funds for commercial expansion

LaserGen receives SBIR grant for portable NGS system

Tecan granted patent for low volume sample plate

General Laboratory

IDEX purchase provider of inline gas-liquid separation

Malvern opens new US site

AB Sciex expands foreign presence

TSI expands portfolio with LIBS from Photon Machines

Halma acquires Sensorex business

Edmund Optics expands in Asia

Block Engineering improves FTIR with QCL

Ohaus introduces new line of precision balances

VWR buys two Czech distributors, expands cleanroom lines

Process & hand-held instrumentation

Microsaic signs first OEM partner

Sierra Instruments expands flow meter line

Ametek buys Dunkermotoren

E&H invests in US manufacturing

Emerson buys level gauge firm ISE Magtech                                      

Conference preview

ACHEMA 2012 – where manufacturing and laboratory meet

Financials

Life science firms pick their way through slow market

Illumina outperforms despite slump in instrument sales

Luminex beats on sales but earnings plunge

Affymetrix ahead on estimates

Ion Torrent drives growth at Life Tech

Qiagen notes slow academic sales

Instrument firms report encouraging signs of growth

FEI impresses on profits again

Mettler-Toledo lifts guidance

Bruker impresses with another quarter of double-digit growth

IDEX ups guidance again

PerkinElmer beats on profit

Process firms note encouraging signs in chip sector

MKS notes improvement in semiconductor demand

Stronger government security spending lifts FTIR

Newport shares tumble as earnings disappoint

Strong sales of water quality instruments drive Danaher

Market features

Solid second half puts Japan back on track

Global instrument export benefit from Japan rebound

Appointments

ACHEMA 2012 – where manufacturing and laboratory meet

ACHEMA 2012 is here, and one of the leading events for the process industries is once more also a global meeting point for the analytical instruments industry. About 680 exhibitors out of the total 3,800 show laboratory and analytical technologies in Hall 4 of the Messe Centre in Frankfurt during the 17^th and 22^nd June.

“ACHEMA offers the chance to see current state-of-the-art technologies in a breadth and depth you won’t find anywhere else in the world,” Thomas Scheuring, CEO of DECHEMA Ausstellungs-GmbH, commented. “There is no other platform worldwide where a decision maker in our industry has a better chance to meet the one single supplier who has the perfect solution for his specific problem. That’s one reason why we see 175,000 people every three years here in Frankfurt”. Addressing the whole supply chain, ACHEMA is no longer just the focus of European engineers, but in addition to the traditionally strong contingent from Japan, the show is seeing a strong increase of exhibitors from China and India as well as from South Korea and Turkey.

“The process industries may have had a hard time in 2008 and 2009, but in 2010 and 2011 many of our exhibitors recorded the best financial results ever. Even if there are some uncertainties in the current economic outlook, overall the industry has emerged stronger than before, and we believe ACHEMA 2012 will equally see very positive progress,” explained Scheuring.

In contrast to more specialised events, ACHEMA covers the whole value chain of the process industry – from research and innovation via the laboratory and process development right through to plant engineering and packaging. This offers the unique opportunity to discuss your challenges with all stakeholders in one place – if you are aiming at integrating a special component in your automation concept, you can go right from the component supplier to the automation specialist.

The dialogue between process engineers and laboratory specialists becomes essential with regard to the latest trends in the laboratory industry strongly driven by increased automation and miniaturisation. Automation aims at better reproducibility, less outside influence, higher throughput and certified conditions. At the same time, sample volumes are becoming ever smaller, culminating in lab-on-a-chip solutions where not only capillary forces are used to move samples through the microfluidic architecture, but increasingly also electrical voltage.

A major trend in the process industry, of course, is the adoption of process analytical technologies (PAT) leading to an automation of analytical processes accompanying the manufacturing workflow. Innovative techniques allow for the real-time measurement of specific parameter within the process, used for immediate process optimization and quality management. Not only do they lead to reduced laboratory costs in the process industry, but they can save millions, especially in high-value products or regulated processes, where small variations in parameters can make a whole batch worthless.

Especially in the field of integrated inline and online analytical technologies, the laboratory and analytics industry sees a large potential. But the success of these developments depends on the close cooperation between lab equipment specialists and process engineers. The congress accompanying the exhibition opens the panel to researchers and scientists who report on their latest close-to-market findings that might make their way into new products over the next couple of years.

Mathis Kuchejda, Chairman of the Association for Analytics, Bio- and Laboratory Technology of the German industry association SPECTARIS, said at ACHEMA’s economic press conference: “With its international approach, ACHEMA is the “showcase to the world” for the analytics, biotech and laboratory industry. Exhibitors do not only meet customers and salespeople from all over the world, the industry also shows its newest trends. ACHEMA functions as a lead event that makes long term trends visible. The extensive congress programme with the exchange between experts supports this leading character. Many exhibitors organise their international sales meetings around this fair, and new international contacts are made. The location at Frankfurt with its industrial surroundings offers at the same time the perfect opportunity to meet customers from the regional chemical industry.”

May 2012 – content

Life Science

Beckman Coulter adds flow cytometry firm

Phalanx Biotech reports revenue growth

Corning buys majority of BD’s Discovery Labware unit

Roche steps back from Illumina takeover

APL automates CD technology through Tecan deal

Conformetrix signs first pharma agreement

General Lab

Dansensor acquisition makes MOCON MAP leader

IDEX expands newly founded Optics and Photonics platform

SGS buys two environmental testing laboratories

Orochem grows and expands

Power supply specialist sold to ITT Exelis

Hichrom buys HPLC column lines from GE

LGR launches first triple isotope CO₂ analyser

Horiba and NKT collaborate

Process & hand-held instrumentation

Cambridge Viscosity joins PAC

Danaher strikes again – in colour

Refine signs GE Healthcare as supplier

Features

Analytica 2012: showing strength in a triple-event year

Chilly outlook leaves instrument firms chasing cautious customers

Financials

Weak markets and funding cuts hit life science firms

EU slowdown hits GE Healthcare

Fluidigm losses grow on charges

Strong instruments sales boost bioMérieux

Gerresheimer sales drift as life science market weakens

Roche sales stumble as competition intensifies

Gen-Probe profits plunge on charge

Strong first half offsets later weakness for lab firms

Acquisitions keep Judges growing

Second half pickup puts Porvair on track

Biohit sales fall as it divests unit

AJ returns to profit in weak Q4

Chinese demand drives Techcomp

Mixed results for process firms in a tough quarter

Pall grows in emerging markets

Weak US demand  hits MOCON

Roper tops guidance for earnings

Dynasil increases revenues, while income suffers

Appointments

April 2012 – content

Life Science

Micronic invests into North American operations

US expansion helps Biomatters grow

NanoSight seeks partners for diagnostics field

Applied Proteomics raises series B funding

Rebrand leads to CM Technologies

Anagnostics signs distributors

PDI in R&D deal with Sage-N

General Lab News

Oxford Instruments and Active Spectrum partner in EMR

Bruker adds small angle scattering expertise

Judges Scientific closes its largest acquisition

Alpha MOS consumer-market expansion affected by downturn

Phenomenex expects to fully integrate Wibby after delay

Adam Equipment celebrates 40th anniversary

Anton Paar buys Petrotest

Distek buys UV line from LEAP Technologies

Process & hand-held instrumentation

GE tanks up on biopharmaceutical manufacturing capabilities

B&W Tek presents hand-held Raman

Brooks mystery buyer revealed

Conference Reports

SFC tops Pittcon Editors’ Awards in neck-on-neck finish

Pittcon 2012: Just staring disaster in the face won’t solve the problem

M&A feature

M&A enthusiasm continued unabated in 2011 - updated

Financials

Budget cutbacks make it hard for life science firms

Transgenomic returns into the black

Merck Millipore process solutions offset weak academia

Tecan positive despite erosion from currency effects

Sequenom looks for growth ahead

Budget cuts hit demand for laboratory instruments

Sartorius outperforms forecasts

Nikon struggles in slow markets

VWR closes profitable year

Skyray growth continues to slow

HORIBA posts cautious outlook

Security instrument firms suffer on funding cutbacks

Budget cuts hit Smiths Detection

ATMI falls to red

HAPSITE demand returns in Q4

SGS sees profits fall on flat sales

Analogic notes security pickup

Features

European firms maintain growth in 2011

Appointments

March 2012 – content

Life Science

Harvard buys plastic consumables specialist

BD acquires microbiology lab automation firm

Hamilton Storage building new facility

ONT could consider IPO within two years

Premier Biosoft enters additional co-marketing agreement

Life Tech buys sample prep company

Affymetrix and BGI cooperate on agriculture

Artel and Tecan intensify collaboration

Mystair launches ‘personal cleanroom’

General Lab

Judges Scientific eyes bolt-on acquisitions

TA acquires Bähr Thermoanalyse

Freeman opens US office

Photonis MBO supported by former parent

Markes expands customer demonstration capabilities

Process & hand-held instrumentation

TeraView raises funding for investment in Asia

American Industrial sells Brooks Instrument

AMETEK buys Technical Manufacturing and O’Brien Corp

Sartorius partners with Refine to interface technologies

Mustard Tree launches new at-line instrument

T-Ray Science leaves THz technology

Features

M&A enthusiasm continued unabated in 2011

US growth halves as China overtakes Germany

Financials

Weak spending hits life science profits

Affymetrix drops to a loss on sales

Illumina joins the $1bn club

Qiagen falls into the red on charge

IonTorrent boost Life Tech

Danaher doubles on Beckman buy

Charges create trouble for many lab firms

Thermo Fisher earnings slip on costs

Costs affect Bruker’s profit

FEI doubles annual earnings

MT growth moderates in Q4

PerkinElmer drops to a loss

Process firms grow strongly

Newport acquisitions help growth

Tough going for FLIR as governments cut spending

Teledyne sales hit marine instrument weakness

Danaher grows in water testing

Appointments

Welcome to Conference Season 2012

Many a conference centre will be bustling with business over the next six months, with the triad of Pittcon, Analytica and Achema taking place in close succession. After the roller coaster ride of the last few years, which started with the banking crash followed by the global slump, and the Earthquake, Tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan last year, its again time to check the pulse of the industry. Pittcon and Analytica in particular will be comparing exhibitor lists and visitor demographics, since various larger companies have decided not be present in its usual grandeur at one or the other. And by the end of June we will be thoroughly conferenced out, unless you need a conference a month (or possibly two?).

Instrument News is planning two initiatives over the next few months, which should be of interest to all of our readers. First of all, with annual reports and balance sheets for 2011 having been completed, we are starting work on our IN Leaderboard, with the aim of listing 450 companies by revenues for the calendar year 2011. In order that your company can be included in the IN Leaderboard in the July issue of Instrument News, click here to take the Instrument News Leaderboard survey.

Furthermore, if you would like to voice your opinion about any subject relevant to the analytical instrument industry and want it published in Instrument News, please contact me on [email protected].

Roche might be in for a long battle…

After the board of director of Illumina rejected the unsolicited takeover offer from Roche on the 7^th February, describing the bid as undervaluing Illumina’s “leadership position and future growth prospects”, Roche restated that it’s $5.7 billion price for Illumina was “full and fair and provides a unique opportunity for Illumina’s shareholders”. It might, however, be in for a long takeover battle, as Illumina can with some right claim that its 10-year history showed that the share slump it experienced in July last year – and which might well have precipitated Roche’s bid – was a temporary aberration.

Illumina’s annual filings, however, slightly delayed by the bid on the 25th January, indicate that while for the calendar year revenues increased by 17% to $1.06 billion, net income fell in the same period by 31% to $86.1 million.

And Roche is anything if not a determined bidder, if its takeovers of Genentech and Ventana are anything to go by. The latter acquisition in 2007/08 was a long drawn out affair, with Roche wrestling Ventana’s board into submission in almost nine months, and the management only ceding ground after a 20% rise on the initial bid. Such determination on Roche’s part, however, might let other potential interested parties think twice before throwing their hats – and money – into the ring.