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Helicos Updates Estimated Restructuring Costs

By a GenomeWeb staff reporter

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Helicos BioSciences today provided an updated estimate of the costs it expects to incur as a result of its restructuring program announced in May.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based maker of a single-molecule sequencing platform said that it expects restructuring costs to total approximately $667,000, of which around $583,000 will relate to employee severance benefits and $84,000 attributed to facility consolidation expenses. That amount is up from its earlier restructuring-cost estimate of between $550,000 and $650,000.

The restructuring included laying off half of its workforce, or 40 positions.

The initial filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on May 17 said that the firm expected to report these charges beginning in the second fiscal quarter of 2010 and continuing through the first fiscal quarter of 2011. Helicos did not say in the filing today whether that schedule remains on track.

The firm has not yet reported its second-quarter financial results.

Helicos is in the process of transitioning its focus from the genomics research market to the molecular diagnostics field. In June, the firm said that it intends to commercialize its first sequencing-based test to the market next year.

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