Research and lab-focused Thermo Fisher Scientific ($TMO) has acquired bioprocessing provider Advanced Scientifics (ASI) for $300 million in cash. The deal comes a scant year after its $13.6 billion purchase of Life Technologies and adds further to its Life Sciences Solutions business. It adds into the revenue mix ASI's global business providing biopharma preparation, processing, storage and transportation systems and equipment.
Prior to the deal, Thermo Fisher had four business units: Life Sciences Solutions, Analytical Instruments, and Specialty Diagnostics as well as Laboratory Products and Services.
Last year, Specialty Diagnostics was its top revenue performer with a 5% gain over the prior year to $3.34 billion. Analytical Instruments and Laboratory Products and Services each increased revenue by 3% in 2014 to $3.25 billion and $6.6 billion, respectively.
The Life Sciences Solutions business bulked up considerably with Thermo Fisher's acquisition of Life Technologies in February 2014. Because of the deal, the company had $4.2 billion in 2014 Life Sciences Solutions revenue, up from $712 million in 2013.
Overall, Thermo Fisher's 2014 revenues were up 29% to $16.89 billion, with organic growth at only 4%. Acquisitions net of divestitures increased revenue by 25% last year.
ASI had about $80 million in 2014 revenue and will go into the Life Sciences Solutions business, alongside Life Tech. The company's 380 employees in Pennsylvania and Mexico will join Thermo Fisher's roughly 50,000-person workforce.
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| Thermo Fisher CEO Marc Casper |
"ASI's intense customer focus has led to the development of innovative solutions that complement our existing single-use technologies and expand our offering across the bioprocessing workflow," Marc Casper, president and CEO of Thermo Fisher, said in a statement.
He continued, "We see this acquisition as a great opportunity to meet customer demand for quality and productivity in bioprocessing, and plan to leverage our global reach to bring these innovative products to a larger customer base."
The move is just the latest in a longer term reshuffle at Thermo Fisher. Last March, it sold some of its biosciences businesses to GE Healthcare ($GE) for $1.1 billion. These included its cell culture, gene modulation and magnetic beads businesses. Those units became part of GE Healthcare's Life Sciences division.
- here is the release on the deal
- and a statement on 2014 Thermo Fisher earnings