Caliper Life Sciences Inc. (NSDQ:CALP) agreed to buy Woburn, Mass.-based Cambridge Research & Instrumentation Inc.
The $20 million deal will see Caliper acquire all of CRi’s outstanding equity securities in exchange for common stock valued at about $10.5 million and $7.5 million in cash plus the assumption of $2 million in debt.
Caliper said it made the deal to grow its life sciences tools portfolio with CRi’s preclinical and tissue-based multiplexed analysis systems as it attempts to build its own clinical research, pathology and clinical market applications.
The merger stipulates that CRi’s headquarters and manufacturing operations will be consolidated with Caliper’s operations in Hopkinton, Mass., meaning CRi’s Woburn facility will be closed by mid-2011. Twelve to 13, or about 25 percent, of CRi’s 49 employees will be laid off, according to Caliper’s estimates. CRi CEO George Abe will join Caliper as senior vice president of cellular and tissue analysis.
Caliper expects CRi’s revenues to be roughly $12 million this year and is hoping for a 20 percent growth rate after the technology is integrated into Caliper’s operations, according to a press release. Integration costs could rise to about $2.5 million; Caliper believes the merger will be accretive to earnigs before interest, debt, taxes and amortization next year.
CRi’s inForm, Nuance, Vectra and Maestro instruments are used for "quantitative imaging of intact tissue, simultaneous analysis of multiple biomarkers and multispectral imaging of small animals," according to Caliper.
