NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Takara Bio USA Holdings announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire all outstanding capital stock of privately held Rubicon Genomics for $75 million.
Further terms were not disclosed.
Takara Bio USA Holdings said the deal will help its parent company — Shiga, Japan-based Takara Bio Group — to expand its portfolio of products for next-generation sequencing library preparation and genetic analysis, strengthen its position in low-input and single-cell pre-analytical sample preparation, and expand into new clinical markets such as in vitro fertilization.
Rubicon sells a number of DNA library preparation products for arrays and Illumina NGS platforms under the ThruPlex, PicoPlex, and TransPlex brand names.
"This acquisition builds on Takara Bio Group's commitment to develop a differentiated NGS portfolio and provide our customers with a broader offering of genetic analysis solutions, particularly in the area of library preparation," Takara Bio USA Holdings President Carol Lou said in a statement. "Rubicon's technologies and products complement our current expertise and offerings such as our portfolio of cDNA synthesis, low-input, and single-cell RNA-seq products. … [We] are looking forward to strengthening and expanding our product offerings in the fields of genomics, sequencing, single-cell, and clinical applications with their unique technologies."
Takara Bio USA Holdings also said that Rubicon's technologies complement those of WaferGen Bio-systems, which it agreed to acquire earlier this year. That deal is expected to close in March.