HOLLISTON, Mass., & CAMBRIDGE, England, July 4 -- Harvard Bioscience Inc. announced Monday that it has acquired, through its Biochrom subsidiary in the UK, Walden Precision Apparatus (WPA) Ltd., based in Cambridge, England, a producer of low-cost diode-array spectrophotometers. In addition to providing Biochrom with diode-array technology, WPA provides access to the approximately $100M per year low-cost spectrophotometer market. Biochrom's Managing Director, David Parr, said, "This acquisition gives us an excellent range of low-cost spectrophotometers which complement our mid- to high-end offerings, most of which are sold through our global life sciences partner, Amersham Biosciences. We are also looking forward to working closely with WPA's distribution network which has been built over the past forty six years since the founding of the company in 1966. Some of these partners will be chosen to represent our new Libra line of mid-range spectrophotometers recently launched at Pittcon." WPA will move from its Linton location to Biochrom's facility in the Cambridge Science Park by the end of September. Peter Watson, managing eirector of WPA, and Steve Marriott, technical director, will remain with the company.