Ultra High-Throughput Technology with Potential Application in DNA Sequencing, Gene Expression, and Genotyping

06-07-2006: Applied Biosystems Group and Agencourt Personal Genomics (APG) have announced they have signed a definitive agreement whereby Applied Biosystems will acquire APG, a privately held developer of next-generation genetic analysis technologies, for approximately $120 million in cash. The transaction is subject to regulatory and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the third calendar quarter of 2006.

APG's massively parallel fluorescence sequencing by stepwise ligation technology is a novel, extremely high throughput approach to DNA/RNA analysis. This technology is expected to be complementary to current Applied Biosystems platforms and applicable to many genetic analysis applications, including de novo genome sequencing, medical sequencing, high throughput gene expression, and high throughput genotyping. Subject to timely completion of the acquisition, Applied Biosystems currently anticipates that it will place initial systems with early-access customers during calendar 2007.

Applied Biosystems currently anticipates the acquisition will be dilutive in both fiscal 2007 and 2008, primarily due to R&D spending, commercialisation activities and acquisition related amortization associated with APG. Dilution in fiscal 2007 is anticipated to be approximately $0.06 per share, excluding the impact of APG acquisition related amortization. In fiscal 2009, the acquisition is anticipated to be accretive, excluding the impact of amortization associated with the APG acquisition. Further information regarding the financial impact of the acquisition will be provided after Applied Biosystems completes a valuation analysis to determine the allocation of the purchase price.

The APG technology combines single tube micro-bead sample preparation with high throughput multi-colour fluorescence imaging. The sequencing chemistry uses ligation probes, an approach that provides very high quality data compared to competitive polymerase-based approaches. The ligation technology provides high accuracy and does not produce homo-polymer sequencing errors that occur with some other next-generation sequencing approaches. The APG system can use 'paired-end' reads, helpful in many genomic applications, such as pathogen sequencing and whole genome sequencing. Currently the system generates 2x25 base pair reads with significant read length improvements anticipated. Prototype systems presently are producing high quality sequence data. APG has applied for several patents and has multiple technology licenses.

The APG R&D team will continue to be based in Beverly, MA, and will join the Applied Biosystems' next-generation team reporting into the Molecular and Cell Biology Division of Applied Biosystems in Foster City, California. APG was incorporated in January 2005 as a separate entity owned by Agencourt Bioscience Corporation. Since the acquisition of Agencourt Bioscience Corporation by Beckman Coulter, Inc. in May 2005, Beckman Coulter has owned 49% of APG, with 51% owned by other shareholders, including APG management. Agencourt Bioscience provides genomic services and nucleic acid purification products to academic, government and bio-pharmaceutical organizations.