Bio Saga Blog - A Chronicle of Life Sciences & Informatics

VisiGen Biotechnologies , a University of Houston gene-sequencing outfit acquired by Invitrogen in October for $20 million, represents the university’s biggest return on a spinout to date, and could eventually become one of its biggest overall tech-transfer wins, the school said last week. As a result of VisiGen’s acquisition, UH, which held an undisclosed equity stake in the startup, will receive nearly $500,000 from the initial installment of the deal. Plans for follow-on installments were not disclosed. An indirect benefit comes from the fact that approximately half of VisiGen’s current employees are UH graduates, the school said. Several of the scientists that founded the company will now continue to research second-generation sequencing techniques in their UH laboratories. Whether this research eventually sparks additional collaborations between VisiGen and the university is now up to Life Technologies, the biotech tool giant that resulted from Invitrogen’s multi-billion-dolla...

Invitrogen Corporation and Applera Corporation today announced that their Boards of Directors have approved a definitive merger agreement, under which Invitrogen will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Applera's Applied Biosystems Group a cash and stock transaction valued at $6.7 billion. This strategic combination will create a global leader in biotechnology reagents and systems generating approximately $3.5 billion in combined sales, with significant commercial, operational and technical scale, uniquely positioned to accelerate and drive new discoveries and commercial applications. The combined company will have a major presence in key growth markets and exceptional technical capabilities in the areas of genetic analysis, proteomics , cell biology and cell systems. Following the close of the transaction, the combined organization will be named Applied Biosystems, Inc. and will have its corporate headquarters in Carlsbad, California. Under the terms of the merger agreement, ...