Amersham plc bought Motorola’s CodeLink Bioarray System business for € 20.57 million ($20 million).
The Motorola’s division has been developed CodeLink products since 1998 and was marketing them to academic research labs and pharmaceutical R&D companies.
80 key personnel will transfer to Amersham plc and the company expects to continue manufacturing this products range in Tempe, Arizona. Most of the 80 retained
employees work as researchers, but a few key sales representatives also will remain on staff.
Amersham plc announced a net income of € 116.23 million ($113 million) in 2001 and the company had already 10% of the € 514.30 million ($500 million) microarray market.
This acquisition will allow Amersham to increase its market share and to reach between 20 and 25%.
For the six months ended 30 June 2002,the company announced an increase in sales of +7% from € 1,271.35 million in 2001 (January to June) to € 1,225.94 million. The operating profit also increased: +15%from € 258.34 million to € 223.90 million.
This sale is linked to Motorola’s effort to reduce costs.In 2000, the company announced plans to reduce its costs by more than 20% by trimming its roughly 150,000 workforce and closing and consolidating facilities. Motorola has today less than 100,000 employees.