This article has been updated with additional information from Bruker.
NEW YORK – NanoString Technologies said Wednesday after the close of the market that Bruker will acquire substantially all of its assets for approximately $392.6 million in cash. In addition, Bruker will assume certain liabilities from NanoString.
Bruker said it plans to fund the acquisition with cash on hand and established debt instruments and expects the transaction to be dilutive to non-GAAP earnings per share by $.15 to $.20 in 2024. Following the closing of the deal, expected in early May and subject to bankruptcy court approval and other customary conditions, the Seattle-based spatial biology firm will no longer be in bankruptcy proceedings and will be owned by Bruker. The assets acquired will include NanoString's nCounter, GeoMx, CosMx, and AtoMx product lines, Bruker said.
NanoString filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February, in part because of unexpectedly large damages — $31 million — it was ordered to pay to 10x Genomics last November following a patent infringement lawsuit relating to its GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler. In December, NanoString also announced it was laying off about 9 percent of its workforce as part of cost-cutting measures.
At the time of the bankruptcy filing, the firm said it was exploring "strategic alternatives," including a sale of all or parts of its business. In parallel, it secured a $47.5 million loan from existing noteholders, which it said would be used to restructure and keep its business activities going.
Later that month, a European patent court overturned a preliminary injunction against NanoString, allowing it to resume sales of its CosMx Spatial Molecular Imager in 16 countries in Europe.
Last month, NanoString said it had reached a binding agreement with healthcare investment firm Patient Square Capital, which was going to acquire its assets for $220 million, pending approval from the bankruptcy court, as a so-called "stalking horse" bidder. That agreement, however, allowed for the submission of other offers.
On April 12, Bruker submitted a qualifying bid, and after an auction on April 16, a revised offer representing a 78 percent increase over Patient Square Capital's bid that was selected as the winning bid, according to NanoString.
The sale to Bruker will "bring about a swift conclusion of our restructuring process," NanoString President and CEO Brad Gray said in a statement.
For Bruker, the acquisition signifies a deeper dive into the spatial biology market. In 2020, the firm acquired Canopy Biosciences, which launched the CellScape system for high-throughput spatial proteomics in 2022. Bruker also took a majority stake in startup Acuity Spatial Genomics in 2021.
"The acquisition of NanoString will add gene expression profiling and spatial transcriptomics solutions and products to Bruker’s spatial biology portfolio," Mark Munch, president of Bruker's Nano group, said in a statement, adding that NanoString's platforms are complementary to CellScape's spatial proteomics platform. "Over time we expect considerable, high-margin consumables pull-through, which is inherent in spatial and single-cell biology solutions," he said.
"Bruker regards spatial biology as a key pillar of our strategic focus on the post-genomic era," Bruker President and CEO Frank Laukien added. "For 2027 and beyond, we expect our combined spatial biology business to achieve double-digit organic revenue growth with increasing non-GAAP EPS accretion."
For the upcoming deal, NanoString is represented by Willkie Farr & Gallagher as counsel, AlixPartners as restructuring adviser, and Perella Weinberg Partners as restructuring investment banker. Bruker is represented by Morgan Lewis & Bockius as counsel and Goldman Sachs as financial adviser.
In morning trading on the OTC market, NanoString's stock was up 74 percent at $.13 per share.