The demand from customers for an integrated start-to-finishapproach is behind many of the company's other recent acquisitions and otheractivities, Flyborg adds, noting that GE Healthcare has been known as an expertin protein purification, or downstream, for many years, but in 2007 it acquiredWAVE Biotech, which took the company into upstream manufacturing, and in 2011acquired PAA, a cell culture media company. In addition, GE Healthcare extendedits Fast Trak training service into South East Asia to meet the needs of therapidly growing biopharmaceutical industry there, and it recently formedalliances with engineering companies Neste Jacobs and M+W Group in late 2011 soGE could offer a turnkey approach.
"And now we've announced our plans to acquire Xcellerex,"Flyborg says. "It's about linking up and integrating all the elements of the manufacturingprocess."
The plan is for Xcellerex to become part of GE Healthcare'sBioTechnologies business. Although the integration plan is something that won'tbegin in earnest until after the closing of the acquisition, Flyborg says theintention right now is for the Xcellerex business to continue operating out ofits existing facilities in Marlborough.
"It's really important to stress that this is about growthand development, not consolidation," Flyborg explains. "Xcellerex has awell-respected team of highly-talented staff, and we plan to invest and growthe business further. We value the highly talented team at Xcellerex and thedepth of expertise and experience they have. The team has a strong track recordin innovation, which will be a tremendous asset for GE Healthcare."
"We are very excited to become part of GE Healthcare's LifeSciences business. The combination of Xcellerex's people, technologies andservices with the resources and global reach of GE Healthcare will allow us tobring forward our plans to grow the business," said Guy Broadbent, presidentand CEO of Xcellerex, in the news release about the deal.
Zacks Investment Research notes that Xcellerex's modulartechnology looks like it can be integrated well with GE Healthcare's cell cultureproducts, adding in an investor note, "Also, being of a modular nature, theywill go down well with customers because of easier installation. This in turnwill speed up deployment, thus showing quickly on GE Healthcare's top line."
