Date: 2014-06-02
Type of information: Company acquisition
Acquired company: Genia Technologies (USA)
Acquiring company: Roche (Switzerland)
Amount: $125 million in cash and up to $225 million in contingent payments depending on the achievement of certain milestones
Terms: * On June 2, 2014, Roche announced the acquisition of Genia Technologies, a privately held company, based in Mountain View, California, USA. Genia is developing a single-molecule, semiconductor based, DNA sequencing platform using nanopore technology. Under the terms of the agreement, Roche will pay Genia’s shareholders $125 million in cash. In addition to this payment from Roche, Genia’s shareholders may receive up to $225 million in contingent payments depending on the achievement of certain milestones. Genia’s proprietary technology is expected to reduce the price of sequencing while increasing speed and sensitivity.Once the transaction is complete, Genia will be integrated into Roche Sequencing Unit and will continue to focus on the development of this innovative system.
Details: Genia Technologies is a privately held company located in Mountain View, CA. Founded in March 2009, Genia is developing a potentially disruptive next generation sequencing technology with integrated circuits enabling massively parallel, single-molecule DNA sequencing. Its versatile nanopore-based platform allows for single molecule, electrical real-time analysis without the need for complicated optics, labels, amplification, or fluidics. The heart of Genia’s technology is a semiconductor integrated circuit where an automated assembly of nanopores in a lipid bilayer allows for the measurement of single molecules. Genia’s sensor technology and its proprietary NanoTag chemistry enables accurate base calls, overcoming many of the limitations faced by other nanopore-based sequencing efforts.
Related: Technology NGS genomics
