NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Celera today reported that its third-quarter revenues rose nearly four-fold, due primarily to two acquisitions during the past year, and its net loss widened on a variety of charges to earnings.
The Alameda, Calif.-based firm reported revenues of $39.5 million for the three-month period ended March 31 compared with revenues of $9.8 million in the third quarter of 2007. Excluding revenue from Berkeley HeartLab and Atria Genetics, which Celera acquired in October 2007, the firm brought in revenues of $14.7 million for the quarter.
Celera posted a net loss of $7.4 million, or $.09 per share, compared to a net loss of $4.5 million, or $.06 per share, for the third quarter of 2007.
A variety of pre-tax items increased Celera’s net loss for the most recent quarter by $8.4 million, it said. Among those items were restructuring costs of $2.2 million; $1.1 million in costs associated with Celera’s separation from Applera; an investment write-down of $3.1 million; amortization of purchased intangible assets of $2.5 million related to the acquisitions of Berkeley HeartLab and Atria; and a gain of $1.1 million from a legal settlement.
Celera also said that it took a pre-tax charge of $600,000 related to the settlement of litigation between Abbott Laboratories and Innogenetics earlier this month. Though Celera was not a party to the suit, it manufactured products sold by Abbott that were part of the settlement.
The firm’s R&D costs fell 21.5 percent to $10.2 million from $13 million year over year. Its SG&A costs tripled to $21.3 million from $7.1 million.
Celera finished the quarter with $338 million in cash and short-term investments.
The firm recently filed a preliminary prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to separate its operations from parent company Applera. The filing was the latest step in the previously announced plans of Applera to split its two businesses — Celera and Applied Biosystems — which currently trade as tracking stocks, into two independently traded companies.
The split-off date has not been finalized, but officials from both Celera and ABI have previously said that they expect it to happen by the end of the firms’ fiscal year on June 30.
Celera expects to report fiscal 2008 revenues of $135 million to $140 million and to be profitable on a non-GAAP basis for the year.
Celera's shares dropped 13.3 percent to close at $13.13 in Thursday trade on the New York Stock Exchange.