Friday, May 28, 2010

Life Technologies Buys Majority Stake In Geneart

Carlsbad-based Life Technologies announced this morning that it has acquired a majority stake in Geneart AG, a synthetic biology company. The firm said it now owns approximately 74 percent of Geneart, after purchasing approximately 554,000 shares of Geneart common stock at EUR13.75 per share in a tender offer, or approximately $9.4M US. Life had purchase approximately 2.6 million shares of Geneart at EUR11.59 per share in early April, paying approximately $37M US for 59 percent of the firm. Life Technologies said Geneart had sales of EUR17 million in 2009, or approximately 21M US.