Agilent Technologies to Acquire BioTek Instruments

Agilent Technologies Inc., a research, development, and manufacturing company, has agreed to pay $1.2 billion to acquire BioTek Instruments Inc., a maker of cell imaging systems.

Headquartered in Winooski, Vt., BioTek designs, manufactures, and distributes life science instrumentation including cell imaging systems, microplate readers, washers, dispensers, automated incubators, and stackers.

Agilent entered the cell analysis market in 2015 with the acquisition of Seahorse Bioscience, a provider of specialized instruments and live-cell, kinetic assays. Agilent Seahorse XF technology was created to evolve cellular metabolism analysis, allowing researchers to better understand metabolic profiles in live cells.

In Jan. 2018, Agilent acquired Luxcel Biosciences. Luxcel’s assays use soluble sensors to analyze metabolism, complementing Agilent’s Seahorse XF technology and providing researchers with more options to analyze live-cell metabolism.

In Sept. 2018, Agilent acquired ACEA Biosciences Inc., a developer of high-performance cell analysis platforms for life science research.

Upon closing of the BioTek acquisition, the size of Agilent’s cell analysis business will be in excess of $250 million in annual revenues.