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Posted on Fri, Nov 20, 2009 : 7:40 a.m.

$275M sale finalized for Ann Arbor's HandyLab

By AnnArbor.com Staff

The deal for Ann Arbor medical devices firm HandyLab, a promising technology company often held up as a bright spot in the local economy, has been finalized by New Jersey-based medical devices manufacturer Becton, Dickinson and Company.

BD paid $275 million for HandyLab, according to a release issued this morning. While that figure wasn't released earlier, local estimates had pegged the value of the deal as close to $300 million.

The sale was announced Oct. 23.

HandyLab is a University of Michigan spinoff that employs about 60 people in Pittsfield Township. Company officials said the local operation will remain.

The biotech company develops and manufactures molecular diagnostic assays and automation platforms.

"HandyLab's high-quality organization and industry-leading technology complement BD's capabilities and healthcare-associated infections strategy, which requires the throughput, simplicity and flexibility that the HandyLab platform provides," said Philippe Jacon, President, BD Diagnostics - Diagnostic Systems, in a release. "We plan to provide laboratories with a broad molecular test menu on a very advanced automation platform."

BD [NYSE: BDX], based in New Jersey, has a market capitalization of $17 billion based on a stock price of $73.46 per share.

Comments

uawisok

Fri, Nov 20, 2009 : 4:48 p.m.

"This company involves innovation and the use of the mind. Not screwing two bolts together on an assembly line." Wow...no prejudgement in that staement...assuming you were ever in a manufacturing plant most machinists were in fact working engineers and did algerbra and trig as a daily coarse of events. There are semi mindless tasks also, but those folks don't get too "mindless" less they loss a limb or life. Just because one chooses to be a 'worker bee' rather than some other form of slave labor does not make them sub human and as simple as you sound.

Bear

Fri, Nov 20, 2009 : 3:50 p.m.

correction: 40 hour work week.

Bear

Fri, Nov 20, 2009 : 3:49 p.m.

Galt, I think you are a little misinformed if you believe that unions were "instrumental" in (sic) the rise of Communism. Unions were instrumental in creating the 40 work week, raising the wages of the lower classes in this country, and the implementation of work safety policies that have saved countless lives. To dismiss unions as you seem to is disingenuous at best. The jobs lost to overseas companies is the doing of conservative capitalists who cannot see beyond the short term profit. That is why India and China are poised to take the United States' place as economic leaders of the world. Thank you for selling us out, Mr. Corporate Capitalist. It all started when the courts allowed Corporations to have the same rights as individuals in this country. Do a little research Galt.

uawisok

Fri, Nov 20, 2009 : 3:29 p.m.

Greed by wall street drives them overseas to exploit workers and the enviroment...there was a time that companies took a active role as being partners in the community...now they just rape and pillage and are extremely short sighted. As they move to China they are also enhancing china and it war machine which has it's sights on what once was the good Ole USA!!

John Galt

Fri, Nov 20, 2009 : 1:04 p.m.

@uawisok: This company involves innovation and the use of the mind. Not screwing two bolts together on an assembly line. They can outsource manufacturing, but not the drive it takes to start a new company with new ideas. The owners deserve to cash-out on their risk. Most of the industries that go to China are those driven away by the UAW and other unions. And unions were instrumental in the rise of Communism. So you should appreciate the irony of the Communist country taking all the union jobs.

uawisok

Fri, Nov 20, 2009 : 12:18 p.m.

Well now that they are owned by a publicly traded corporation they can out source everything to China and please the Wall Street slave owners!!