BILLERICA, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Bruker Corporation today announced the signing of a purchase agreement
to acquire Center for Tribology, Inc. (CETR) for an undisclosed amount.
CETR, a privately held corporation located in Silicon Valley in
Campbell, CA, is projected to have calendar year 2011 revenue greater
than $10 million and EBITDA greater than $2 million. The transaction is
expected to close at the end of the third quarter of 2011, subject to
customary closing conditions. After the closing, Bruker intends to
continue to operate CETR in Silicon Valley and to integrate its business
management, operations, research and development, sales and support with
the Bruker Nano Surfaces division. It is anticipated that CETR will
become a separate Tribology and Indenting business, joining the current
AFM (atomic force microscope) and SOM (stylus and optical metrology)
businesses in the Bruker Nano Surfaces division.
“CETR has been providing customers a competitive edge with innovative
indenting and tribology testing solutions for over fifteen years”
“CETR has been continuously and increasingly successful for nearly two
decades in nanoindenting and microindenting, and in materials and
tribology testing,” said Mark R. Munch, Ph.D., President of the Bruker
Nano Surfaces division. “We are delighted to add their synergistic core
competencies to our own AFM and optical metrology expertise. CETR
customers are interested in mechanically testing the structure property
relationships as they relate to tribology and nano-mechanical properties
just as Bruker Nano Surfaces division’s current customers want to use
microscopy and metrology to measure topography, and other surface
properties.”
“CETR has been providing customers a competitive edge with innovative
indenting and tribology testing solutions for over fifteen years,”
remarked Norm V. Gitis, Ph.D., Founder, CEO and President of CETR. “We
are pleased to bring our complete materials testing product lines to
Bruker, whose stellar instrumentation reputation and worldwide sales and
support structure will enable our technology to reach new regions and
markets.”
CETR products can perform multitudes of operations to characterize
nano-, micro- and macro-mechanical and tribological properties under
harsh environmental conditions (high and low temperatures and humidity,
vacuum, gases, etc.), and have become the de facto standard for
multiple industries and basic research around the world. CETR
instruments have been successfully utilized in numerous academic labs
for fundamental materials research and have been responsible for
important breakthroughs in studies of thin films, as well as in numerous
factories and plants for quality control of ink-jet cartridges, razor
blades, industrial oils and many other industrial, medical and consumer
products.
About CETR
CETR was founded in 1993 to offer testing and consulting services to
high-tech companies. Within a year, CETR started developing and
manufacturing its own test equipment, and now is a worldwide leader in
nano-mechanical and tribological test instrumentation, serving both
basic materials research and industrial manufacturing in a wide range of
fields, including the biomedical, petroleum, microelectronics, energy,
and automotive markets. For more information about CETR, please visit www.cetr.com.
About Bruker Corporation
Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ: BRKR) is a leading global manufacturer of
scientific instruments that address the needs of a diverse array of
research and production customers in materials, chemical analysis, life
science and pharmaceutical, biotechnology and molecular diagnostics
research. For more information about Bruker Corporation, please visit www.bruker.com.
BRUKER CAUTIONARY STATEMENT
Any statements contained in this press release that do not describe
historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements as that term
is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any
forward-looking statements contained herein are based on current
expectations, but are subject to risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual results to differ materially from those projected,
including, but not limited to, risks and uncertainties relating to
adverse changes in conditions in the global economy and volatility in
the capital markets, the integration of businesses we have acquired or
may acquire in the future, changing technologies, product development
and market acceptance of our products, the cost and pricing of our
products, manufacturing, competition, dependence on collaborative
partners and key suppliers, capital spending and government funding
policies, changes in governmental regulations, realization of
anticipated benefits from economic stimulus programs, intellectual
property rights, litigation, and exposure to foreign currency
fluctuations and other risk factors discussed from time to time in our
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factors are identified and described in more detail in our filings with
the SEC, including, without limitation, our annual report on Form 10-K
for the year ended December 31, 2010, our most recent quarterly reports
on Form 10-Q and our current reports on Form 8-K. We expressly disclaim
any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements
other than as required by law.