NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – EMD Millipore today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Seattle-based Amnis, a developer and manufacturer of high-speed cellular imaging instruments.
Amnis' technology is used for flow cytometry applications in academic, biotech, and pharmaceutical cell analysis and research. The acquisition complements EMD Millipore's existing Guava product offerings.
"Today there are no comparable alternatives that enable our customers to combine flow cytometry and image analysis in one integrated solution," Jonathan DiVincenzo, head of EMD Millipore's Bioscience business unit, said in a statement. "With this acquisition, EMD Millipore becomes the only provider of this technology."
Amnis has 40 employees and had $14 million in sales in 2010. The firm is among the smaller players in the cell imaging space, which already included EMD Millipore along with Beckman Coulter, Becton Dickinson, and Life Technologies, which entered the space in late 2009.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
EMD Millipore was formed following Merck KGaA's roughly $7 billion acquisition of Billerica, Mass.-based Millipore last year. Outside of the US and Canada the business operates under the name Merck Millipore.