Beckman Coulter adds flow cytometry firm

Phalanx Biotech reports revenue growth

Corning buys majority of BD’s Discovery Labware unit

Roche steps back from Illumina takeover

APL automates CD technology through Tecan deal

Conformetrix signs first pharma agreement

General Lab

Dansensor acquisition makes MOCON MAP leader

IDEX expands newly founded Optics and Photonics platform

SGS buys two environmental testing laboratories

Orochem grows and expands

Power supply specialist sold to ITT Exelis

Hichrom buys HPLC column lines from GE

LGR launches first triple isotope CO₂ analyser

Horiba and NKT collaborate

Process & hand-held instrumentation

Cambridge Viscosity joins PAC

Danaher strikes again – in colour

Refine signs GE Healthcare as supplier

Features

Analytica 2012: showing strength in a triple-event year

Chilly outlook leaves instrument firms chasing cautious customers

Financials

Weak markets and funding cuts hit life science firms

EU slowdown hits GE Healthcare

Fluidigm losses grow on charges

Strong instruments sales boost bioMérieux

Gerresheimer sales drift as life science market weakens

Roche sales stumble as competition intensifies

Gen-Probe profits plunge on charge

Strong first half offsets later weakness for lab firms

Acquisitions keep Judges growing

Second half pickup puts Porvair on track

Biohit sales fall as it divests unit

AJ returns to profit in weak Q4

Chinese demand drives Techcomp

Mixed results for process firms in a tough quarter

Pall grows in emerging markets

Weak US demand  hits MOCON

Roper tops guidance for earnings

Dynasil increases revenues, while income suffers

Appointments

Micronic invests into North American operations

US expansion helps Biomatters grow

NanoSight seeks partners for diagnostics field

Applied Proteomics raises series B funding

Rebrand leads to CM Technologies

Anagnostics signs distributors

PDI in R&D deal with Sage-N

General Lab News

Oxford Instruments and Active Spectrum partner in EMR

Bruker adds small angle scattering expertise

Judges Scientific closes its largest acquisition

Alpha MOS consumer-market expansion affected by downturn

Phenomenex expects to fully integrate Wibby after delay

Adam Equipment celebrates 40th anniversary

Anton Paar buys Petrotest

Distek buys UV line from LEAP Technologies

Process & hand-held instrumentation

GE tanks up on biopharmaceutical manufacturing capabilities

B&W Tek presents hand-held Raman

Brooks mystery buyer revealed

Conference Reports

SFC tops Pittcon Editors’ Awards in neck-on-neck finish

Pittcon 2012: Just staring disaster in the face won’t solve the problem

M&A feature

M&A enthusiasm continued unabated in 2011 – updated

Financials

Budget cutbacks make it hard for life science firms

Transgenomic returns into the black

Merck Millipore process solutions offset weak academia

Tecan positive despite erosion from currency effects

Sequenom looks for growth ahead

Budget cuts hit demand for laboratory instruments

Sartorius outperforms forecasts

Nikon struggles in slow markets

VWR closes profitable year

Skyray growth continues to slow

HORIBA posts cautious outlook

Security instrument firms suffer on funding cutbacks

Budget cuts hit Smiths Detection

ATMI falls to red

HAPSITE demand returns in Q4

SGS sees profits fall on flat sales

Analogic notes security pickup

Features

European firms maintain growth in 2011

Appointments

Harvard buys plastic consumables specialist

BD acquires microbiology lab automation firm

Hamilton Storage building new facility

ONT could consider IPO within two years

Premier Biosoft enters additional co-marketing agreement

Life Tech buys sample prep company

Affymetrix and BGI cooperate on agriculture

Artel and Tecan intensify collaboration

Mystair launches ‘personal cleanroom’

General Lab

Judges Scientific eyes bolt-on acquisitions

TA acquires Bähr Thermoanalyse

Freeman opens US office

Photonis MBO supported by former parent

Markes expands customer demonstration capabilities

Process & hand-held instrumentation

TeraView raises funding for investment in Asia

American Industrial sells Brooks Instrument

AMETEK buys Technical Manufacturing and O’Brien Corp

Sartorius partners with Refine to interface technologies

Mustard Tree launches new at-line instrument

T-Ray Science leaves THz technology

Features

M&A enthusiasm continued unabated in 2011

US growth halves as China overtakes Germany

Financials

Weak spending hits life science profits

Affymetrix drops to a loss on sales

Illumina joins the $1bn club

Qiagen falls into the red on charge

IonTorrent boost Life Tech

Danaher doubles on Beckman buy

Charges create trouble for many lab firms

Thermo Fisher earnings slip on costs

Costs affect Bruker’s profit

FEI doubles annual earnings

MT growth moderates in Q4

PerkinElmer drops to a loss

Process firms grow strongly

Newport acquisitions help growth

Tough going for FLIR as governments cut spending

Teledyne sales hit marine instrument weakness

Danaher grows in water testing

Appointments

Instrument News is planning two initiatives over the next few months, which should be of interest to all of our readers. First of all, with annual reports and balance sheets for 2011 having been completed, we are starting work on our IN Leaderboard, with the aim of listing 450 companies by revenues for the calendar year 2011. In order that your company can be included in the IN Leaderboard in the July issue of Instrument News, click here to take the Instrument News Leaderboard survey.

Furthermore, if you would like to voice your opinion about any subject relevant to the analytical instrument industry and want it published in Instrument News, please contact me on Stefan@instrumentnews.co.uk.

Illumina’s annual filings, however, slightly delayed by the bid on the 25th January, indicate that while for the calendar year revenues increased by 17% to $1.06 billion, net income fell in the same period by 31% to $86.1 million.

And Roche is anything if not a determined bidder, if its takeovers of Genentech and Ventana are anything to go by. The latter acquisition in 2007/08 was a long drawn out affair, with Roche wrestling Ventana’s board into submission in almost nine months, and the management only ceding ground after a 20% rise on the initial bid. Such determination on Roche’s part, however, might let other potential interested parties think twice before throwing their hats – and money – into the ring.

Ocimum auction “successful”

BioTek Instruments opens Shanghai and French office

Quanterix gets strategic investment

Febit renames to CBC

IntegenX raises $40 million

Roche makes hostile take over bid for Illumina

Sony DADC and Axela to develop immunoassay consumables

Takara licenses thermal cycler patents from Eppendorf

OpGen launches Genome-Builder software

General Laboratory

FEI buys Aspex Corp

Scitek Australia appointed Pfeiffer’s exclusive distributor

Agilent Technologies Expands Vacuum Products Portfolio

Labsphere appoints Canadian representative

Edwards to create technology centre in UK

Preproduction mini MS reaches selected customers

Accelrys buys further ELN developer

Process & hand-held instrumentation

LumaSense acquires Reliability Point

DASGIP acquisition adds to Eppendorf’s cell culture portfolio

Gasmet Technologies restructures

Features – End-user markets

Confidence wavers as economic malaise affects research spending

Finanicals

Weak research spending troubles life science firms

Acquisitions keep Techne on track

Cepheid stock lifts despite loss

Olympus down on exchange rate

Gen-Probe slips into the red

Merck Millipore maintains growth

Lab firms pick their way through chillier winds

NVE slips in a challenging quarter

JEOL lowers full-year forecasts

Biohit back in the black

Flat quarter for Corning Life Sciences

Waters beats targets in Q4

Firms see signs of strengthening chip sector

Diploma surges on strong hospital spending

Renishaw invests in growth

Teradyne ahead of targets

Instrument sales weaken at Intevac

Strong US demand drivers Parker

Appointments

Agilent buys two companies for life science sample prep

Proteros moves into new facility

Corning buys in cell culture and bioprocess expertise

Affymetrix to expand into flow cytometry

NanoString closes $20 million funding round

Labcyte and Roche collaborate

Horizon enters into partnership agreement with Promega

General Lab

Netzsch to celebrate 50^th anniversary

Nanoliter seeks investment partner for IBF commercialisation

Mitegen signs distributors

New premises for Anatune

Analytik UK signs two new suppliers

Axel Semrau and CTC in software joint-development agreement

Optics Balzers offers additional filter portfolio

Process & hand-held instrumentation

Pall expands process monitoring with ForteBio purchase

ATMI takes full control of SDS product line

Financials

New markets vital for life science firms

Qiagen benefits from growth plans

Resignation of sales VP puts brakes on PBI

Biotage held back by weak dollar

Emerging markets drive GE growth

WaferGen changes tack

Lab firms warn of though times ahead

Shimadzu sees economy worsening

Acquisitions boost Andor

HORIBA flat despite strong demand for instrumentation

AJ falls to a loss on costs

Bruker lifts guidance again

Process firms up on new region demand

Analogic to close two locations as cost-cuts continue

Restructuring custs hit Pall’s bottom line

Invensys benefits from emerging market demand

Instrument sales drive Mesa in the second quarter

Market features

Earthquake ends blue period for Japan

Global instrument export maintain growth track

Appointments

Life Sciences

Thorlab expands life science capabilities with Burleigh buy

Arrayjet enters into two agreements

Operations of bankrupt GRI continue in two companies

PerkinElmer completes Caliper acquisition

Abcam makes second acquisition

Funding enables expansion of Oxford Nanopore operations

Noblegen receives SBIR grant

Roche licenses DNA sensing patents

Ametek expands medical device business

Labcyte wins NIH funding, collaborates with Thermo Fisher

General Laboratory

Advion to break into MS market

Labindia divests business units to two Danaher companies

Till Photonics changes owner for €14.5m

Oxford Instrument buys MRI/CT service business

Inficon buys portable GC company Photovac

Nanoworld acquires MEMS plant

Process & hand-held instrumentation

Rigaku buys BaySpec Raman lines

Process instrumentation group established at Perten Inc

Satorius and GE Healthcare in licensing agreement

Conference Report

EAS 2011 – Can it survive in a pharma-free state?

Financials

Funding slowdown hits life sciences instrument firms

Sequenom stays on target

Bio-Rad feels economic pinch

Affymetrix takes $10 million loss

Familion buy lifts Transgenomic

Sluggish HBIO disappoints

No consensus on economy for lab instrument firms

VWR returns to profit in Q3

MT warns of slowing growth

OI reports healthy markets

Record profit again for FEI

Agilent falls short on sales

Orders pick up for makers of security instruments

HAPSITE sales up as orders return

Intevac slips again in Q3

ITT strong on eve of its split

Newport spends to avoid chip fall

SPX adds more flow technology

Market Feature

European growth slows in 2011 first half

inAppointments

Protea becomes publicly listed through reverse merger

Danaher ponders staff cuts at Beckman Coulter

Surmodics closes manufacturing site, remodels management team

SQI and Scienion terminate purchase agreement

Sartorius to buy liquid handling business from Biohit

Equity company buys major share in Olink

Attana and Layerlab enter distribution agreement

HP launches direct digital titration instrument

Bio-Rad invests in next generation PCR

Sony acquires Micronics

Merck and BGI in biomarker and genomics technology deal                       

General Lab News

Kinesis expands US offices, leaves MS joint venture

Bruker Nano Surfaces adds nanoindentation expertise

Nanosurf opens Chinese JV, moves to new HQs

Ionicon starts North American operations

Reflect Scientific in deal with USDA

PI acquires majority in precision positioning firm miCos

JEOL signs Chilean deal, opens Indian office

Process & hand-held instrumentation

Spectris in $500 million acquisition spree

Endress & Hauser buys stake in bioprocess sensor company

Feature

Instrumentation firms grow despite signs of wider economic stagnation

Financials

Life Science suffers from slowdown in research funding

Life Tech beats expectations, but earnings fall

Olympus slides

Asia puts Sartorius ahead

Cepheid raises guidance

Illumina cuts jobs as profit falls

Lab firms warn of weak research spending

Agilent raises forecasts again

Showa Denko flat

Thermo’s stock drops on forecast

FEI beats targets once again

More losses for VWR due to debt

Process firms cautious despite surging growth

ABB disappoints on marine sales

Orders fall at KLA

Another record quarter for Ametek

Parker Hannifin reports optimism

Acquisitions lift Honeywell

Appointments

Life Science

PacBio lays off 30% of staff

LGC buys genotyping assay developer

PerkinElmer acquires Caliper Life Sciences for $600m

Sartorius invests in Biohit

CMA acquisition expands HBIO’s animal testing capabilities

Merck Millipore expands stake in flow cytometry market

Dolomite launches single-cell micromanipulation chip

Thermo Fisher buys Intrinsic Bioprobes

Complete Genomcis in two sequencing partnership

Fluidigm pays for Life Tech’s PCR technologies                       

General Laboratory

Mettler Toledo continues to extend businesses

Hanna Instruments US moves into new facilities

TSI celebrates Silver Jubilee

Freeman moves to new headquarters

VWR makes acquisitions in Italy and China

Equity support furthers Perten expansion with TexVol deal

ChemImage wins funding for manufacturing facility

Skalar moves Indian office

Analytik Jena and Metrohm enter into strategic alliance

GSG becomes Prosolia distributor for German-speaking markets

Process & hand-held instrumentation

YSI acquisition ends employee-ownership model

Hamilton adds sensors to ARC family

GE Healthcare to acquire cell culture media business

Smiths Detection joins Security Manufacturers Coalition

Financials

US and Europe remain stagnant for life sciences

Biotage trails on sluggish markets

PacBio improves

Qiagen cuts guidance in Q2

Fluidigms sinks to a loss

Tecan raises local currency guidance

Currency effects hit EU lab firms

MT ups guidance as market pick up

Shimadzu grows on domestic recovery

Biohit optimistic despite weak Q2

HORIBA raises 2011 forecast

Judges bullish after record H1

Process firms hold steady

Pall impresses despite falling earnings

Parker Hannifin slips on forecast

Emerson Process keep growing

Microsaic seeks more OEM deals

MKS notes softening semicon market

Feature

US export growth slows in the first half

Appointments