NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Fluidigm said today that it has agreed to acquire mass cytometry firm DVS Sciences for roughly $207.5 million in company common stock and cash.
The acquisition will add DVS Sciences' multi-parameter single-cell protein analysis platform, the CyTOF 2, to Fluidigm's portfolio, giving the company a foothold in both the high-end flow cytometry and single-cell proteomics markets.
The CyTOF 2 combines capabilities of flow cytometry and atomic mass spectrometry. Atomic mass spectrometry measures proteins using antibodies linked to stable isotopes of elements, which can then be read with high resolution via time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The platform is able to simultaneously quantify as many as 100 protein biomarkers in individual cells at a rate of roughly 1,000 cells per second.
"DVS’s mass cytometry technology combines the advantages of high-throughput flow cytometry with the accuracy and resolution of mass spectrometry, enabling high-parameter single-cell protein analysis," Gajus Worthington, Fluidigm president and CEO, said in a statement. "We believe the acquisition of DVS will increase Fluidigm’s single-cell revenue immediately, as well as increase our addressable market to include the approximately $300 million high-end research flow cytometry segment. It also expands our analytical breadth to include single-cell protein analysis.”
The deal marks Fluidigm's second move into protein analysis in recent months. In July, the company signed a co-marketing deal with Olink Biosciences that combined the two firms' technologies to create a high-throughput proteomics platform capable of simultaneously measuring 92 proteins across 96 samples.
The DVS purchase is expected to close in February 2014, at which point DVS will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fluidigm.
It said that it would use roughly $119.7 million of the net proceeds from a proposed $175 million convertible notes offering to fund the acquisition of DVS.
Several members of DVS's management and R&D teams, including Co-founders Scott Tanner, currently the firm's chief technology officer, Dmitry Bandura, and Vladimir Baranov, will join Fluidigm upon completion of the deal.
In Wednesday morning trade on the Nasdaq, shares of Fluidigm were down nearly 10 percent at $37.04.