A strategic acquisition of the Olympus Laboratory unit
Beckman Coulter Inc, manufacturer of medical test systems, has agreed to acquire the diagnostic systems portion of Olympus Corporation's life sciences business.
‘Beckman Coulter is making this acquisition because the combined businesses are better together – the synergies in terms of products, geographic placement and highly capable people make it very compelling,’ Beckman Coulter explained. ‘We will create a world-leading company in clinical diagnostics with special strength in chemistry and automated laboratory systems. Once the acquisition closes, we expect to have global market share that places us near the top of the chemistry segment.
‘This is a very strategic acquisition — Olympus’ chemistry systems fill some important gaps in our product line, providing outstanding systems for customers in both the ultra-high throughput and the low-volume segments.
‘We’ve also been very successful at placing our immunoassay systems with our chemistry customers. The access to Olympus’ installed base should give us more opportunities to continue the growth of our immunoassay business.
‘We think that the combination of Olympus’ ultra-high throughput chemistry systems with our UniCel DxI 800 — the highest throughput immuno-assay analyser available today — will be very attractive to customers around the world, especially in Europe and Japan.
‘Our automation product lines are also complementary. We’re a world leader in connected, total lab automation. Olympus is the leader in pre-analytical automation – we’ll be able to offer customers who need automation more choices and better solutions.’
01.05.2009
