Illumina Builds out BeadArray Platform with $17.5M Acquisition of CyVera

NEW YORK, Feb. 22 (GenomeWeb News) - Illumina has signed a definitive agreement to acquire CyVera, a developer of a microbead-based biological assay platform, for $17.5 million in cash and stock, Illumina said today.

CyVera, a privately held firm based in Wallingford, Conn., will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Illumina, and its microbead platform will become "an integral part" of Illumina's BeadArray technology, Illumina said.

Illumina said that the acquisition will provide it with a bead-based assay platform for "low-complexity as well as high-complexity testing."

CyVera uses holographic imprinting to add a digital address to rod-shaped beads, each of which is a potential site for a biological assay, according to the company. The beads can support both nucleic acid and protein probe content, Illumina said, adding that the technology should provide high-performance assay capability at multiplex levels between ten and 1,000 targets.

Under the terms of the acquisition, which is expected to close by the end of March, Illumina will provide approximately 1.5 million shares of its common stock and will pay approximately $2.3 million of CyVera's liabilities. The exact number of shares will be based on the average price of Illumina's outstanding shares before closing.

CyVera was spun out of CiDRA, a process-monitoring technology developer, in November 2003.

Illumina said that it expects the first products based on the CyVera technology to be available in the second half of 2006.