Varian buys Digilab assets.

Palo Alto, CA 9/15/04 -- Varian has acquired selected assets of Digilab for $14 million in cash, including Fourier Transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy instruments as well as FT-IR imaging microscopes. "[T]he acquisition provides the opportunity to expand our existing gas chromatography (GC) business by offering hyphenated techniques, such as GC-IR and GC/FT-IR/ mass spectrometry (MS), using Digilab's infrared detector," said Varian Scientific Instruments Vice President Martin O'Donoghue. Varian forecasts the acquisition to generate at least $15 million In revenue in one year and to be slightly dilutive to earnings for the first six months and accretive afterward.

The acquisition includes an additional payment based on performance targets over the next year. Varian plans to expand distribution and R&D for the products. Digilab was created in 2001 when Bio-Rad sold the business to Atropos Technologies (see IBO 10/31/01). The addition of Digilab products will give Varian one of the broadest lines of molecular spectroscopy technologies in the market.