SAN DIEGO—Accelrys, Inc. has announced the acquisition ofprivately held VelQuest Corporation, a leader in paperless lab executionsystems for industries such as biotechnology and pharmaceuticals organizations,for $35 million in an all-cash transaction. All key members of VelQuest'smanagement team have been retained, and Ken Rapp, VelQuest President and ChiefExecutive Officer, will continue to lead Accelrys' undertakings in paperlessanalytical and quality operations within the life sciences vector.
"Joining forces with Accelrys is a real win for the manylife sciences organizations we serve," said Rapp in a press release. "As partof a company of Accelrys' size and scale, we are in a better position to servethe data management needs of our customers. VelQuest will take advantage of anincreased investment in product development and a customer support anddeployment organization that is well suited to address the needs of large scale,global organizations. In addition, with Accelrys' broad market reach, theutilization of VelQuest's products beyond life sciences offers significantopportunities. Most importantly, the inherent synergies between Accelrys andVelQuest products and their critical roles in the development tocommercialization phases of the pharmaceutical R&D process offer customersa comprehensive, single-source informatics offering along the entirelab-to-plant value chain."
The acquisition expands Accelrys' portfolio into thedownstream pharmaceutical development Quality Assurance and Quality Controlspace, as well as gaining it several products. VelQuest provides electronic labnotebook and LIMS software, such as its Procedure Execution Managementproducts, which include SmartLab gmpELN, an electronic laboratory notebooksystem designed for paperless documentation of routine laboratory procedures;SmartBatch EBR, a procedure execution and electronic batch record softwaresystem that electronically documents execution of procedures or recipes; andSmartLab EM, an enterprise software application for paperless management ofmicrobiological environmental monitoring sampling plans.
The technology Accelrys gains in the acquisition complementsthe company's own existing systems, such as its Accelrys Pipeline Pilot, ascientific informatics platform that aggregates and provides access to storeddata while automating analysis of that data, and Symyx Notebook, itsmulti-disciplinary electronic lab notebook for paperless workflow. Adding inVelQuest's systems will reduce the resources required for paperless analyticaland quality operations, and some integration has already begun betweenVelQuest's and Accelrys' products.
"With the acquisition of VelQuest, Accelrys continues toexecute on its strategy of providing a broad, flexible solution set forcustomers that depend on scientific innovation to bring new products from labto market more quickly and efficiently," Max Carnecchia, President and ChiefExecutive Officer of Accelrys, said in a press release. "VelQuest's strongproducts and proven domain expertise in compliance-intensive laboratoryoperations expand our ability to meet our life sciences customers' criticalneeds in late stage development, quality control and production."
Accelrys expects the acquisition of VelQuest to be slightlydilutive to its non-GAAP net income per share for the full year 2012, and adetailed guidance for 2012 will be released along with the company's fourthquarter 2011 financial results.
