Takeover comes shortly after the company bought Finnzymes, also a provider of PCR solutions.
Thermo Fisher Scientific is acquiring Fermentas for $260 million in cash. The firm manufactures and distributes enzymes, reagents, and kits for molecular and cellular biology research.
With headquarters in Burlington, Canada, and principal operations in Vilnius, Lithuania, Fermentas has approximately 500 employees. The company had full-year revenues of approximately C$57 million (approximately $54 million) in 2009, according to Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Fermentas will be integrated into Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Analytical Technologies Segment. The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of 2010. Thermo does not expect it to have a material impact on this year’s financial results.
The company provides a range of research tools including reagents for nucleic-acid and protein purification, restriction and modifying enzymes, molecular weight markers, and other life science research and diagnostic tools. The company also offers a variety of products for PCR, RT-PCR, and qRT-PCR.
“With Fermentas, we are better-positioned to meet the demands of molecular and cell biologists for complete workflows that can accelerate their research and improve results,” remarks Marc N. Casper, president and CEO of Thermo Fisher Scientific. “The addition of Fermentas, our recent acquisition of Finnzymes, and the launch of our new Solaris qPCR assays create a unique combination of products and expertise that enables us to strengthen our depth of capabilities in the high-growth PCR market including research and PCR-based testing.”
Thermo Fisher Scientific picked up Finnzymes on February 2. The company provides various reagents, instruments, consumables, and kits, with headquarters in Espoo, Finland. It reportedly generated $20 million in revenue during 2009.
Solaris qPCR gene-expression assays are designed to perform under universal thermal-cycling conditions and to detect all known splice variants of the target gene, according to Thermo Fisher Scientific.
