Varian Acquires Molecular Spectroscopy Products from Digilab

Varian, Inc. today announced that it has acquired certain molecular spectroscopy assets of Digilab, LLC for $14 million in cash, subject to certain net asset adjustments. The transaction also includes an opportunity for an additional purchase price payment if the acquired product lines reach specific financial performance targets during the next 12 months. The acquisition expands the Company's product range of information rich detectors and spectrometers for life science and industrial materials research applications. Varian, Inc. expects the acquisition of these Digilab product lines to generate at least $15 million of revenue in year one, and to be slightly dilutive to earnings for the first six months and accretive thereafter.

The acquired product lines include Fourier Transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy instruments, FT-IR imaging microscopes, near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy instruments, and Raman spectroscopy instruments. FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy products have broad application in pharmaceutical and biotechnology research as well as industrial materials research.

"Digilab is a technology leader in FT-IR. Through our global channels, Varian, Inc. offers expanded distribution for the acquired products, and we bring increased R&D through our already strong positions in related technologies, such as UV/Vis, Fluorescence, and NIR spectroscopy," said Martin O'Donoghue, Vice President, Scientific Instruments. "In addition, the acquisition provides the opportunity to expand our existing gas chromatography (GC) business by offering hyphenated techniques, such as GC-IR and GC/ FT-IR/mass spectrometry (MS), using Digilab's infrared detector."

Molecular spectroscopy is a technique used by scientists to determine the structure, function, and dynamics of a substance based upon its electromagnetic characteristics. FT-IR spectroscopy uses the absorption spectrum of a compound to determine its molecular structure, while Raman spectroscopy uses the scattering of laser light to provide complementary information. Both techniques have applications in quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) testing and the determination of biological tissue composition.

Quelle: Varian Inc.