NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Agilent Technologies and Seahorse Bioscience announced after the close of the market on Wednesday that they have signed a definitive agreement under which Agilent will acquire Seahorse for $235 million in cash.
Seahorse is based in Billerica, Massachusetts, and its technology enables scientists to better understand cell health, function, and signaling, as well as investigate the impact of the introduction of a specific drug on the cell by providing real-time kinetics "to unlock essential cellular bioenergetics data," the firms said.
Seahorse's XF technology is used by researchers investigating the role of cell metabolism in neurodegeneration, aging, cancer, cardiovascular disease, cell physiology, toxicology and hepatobiology, immunology, infectious diseases, mitochondrial diseases, model organisms, obesity, diabetes, and metabolic disorders, Agilent and Seahorse said.
"Seahorse Bioscience's unique technology is the perfect complement to Agilent's market-leading separations and mass spectrometry solutions, in particular for metabolomics research and disease research in pharma," Patrick Kaltenbach, president of Agilent's Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group, said in a statement. "The combination of these two platforms gives scientists a more comprehensive and faster path to researching the most challenging diseases affecting mankind."
The deal is expected to be completed by Nov. 1, and will be debt financed. Seahorse is expected to generate $49 million in revenues for fiscal 2015, and the deal is anticipated to be accretive to Agilent in fiscal 2016.
Seahorse employs nearly 200 people, most of whom are expected to join Agilent. In addition to its headquarter in Billerica, the company has its manufacturing operations in Chicopee, Massachusetts and regional offices in Copenhagen, Denmark and in Shanghai.