Fluidigm ($FLDM) and DVS Sciences announced Wednesday they're merging in a tie-up for which Fluidigm will pay $207.5 million in stock and cash to buy out its San Francisco Bay-area neighbor.
DVS Sciences makes CyTOF, a high-throughput mass cytometer for quantitative individual cell analysis, designed to identify up to 100 biomarkers. It's headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, with an R&D and instrument-making facility near Toronto, and a sales and support office in the U.K.
San Francisco-based Fluidigm makes genetics instruments, focusing on microfluidic systems. Its instruments and consumables--including chips and reagents--are used primarily by biopharma companies, academic institutions and agricultural biotech. Fluidigm went public in 2011, raising $75 million.
After a close scheduled for February 2014, DVS is set to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Fluidigm.
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| CEO Gajus Worthington--Courtesy of Fluidigm |
"We have long been interested in companies whose technologies are directly in-line with our strategy, have strong top-line growth, and whose management teams fit Fluidigm culturally and would be committed to the success of the combined enterprise," Fluidigm CEO Gajus Worthington said in a statement. "DVS's mass cytometry technology combines the advantages of high-throughput flow cytometry with the accuracy and resolution of mass spectrometry, enabling high-parameter single-cell protein analysis. We believe the acquisition of DVS will increase Fluidigm's single-cell revenue immediately, as well as increase our addressable market to include the approximately $300 million high-end research flow cytometry segment. It also expands our analytical breadth to include single-cell protein analysis."
- read the Fluidigm-DVS press release