Agilent Technologies to acquire Silicon Genetics, leading provider of life science informatics

25-Aug-2004

Agilent Technologies Inc. and silicon Genetics announced an agreement for Agilent to acquire Silicon Genetics, a leading provider of software solutions for life science discovery.

With the addition of Silicon Genetics' genomics data analysis and management tools to its portfolio, Agilent will become a market leader in life science informatics. The acquisition is subject to closing conditions, and financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

"Silicon Genetics brings Agilent an outstanding informatics product portfolio and a strong team of people with extensive experience in software development, marketing, sales and support," said Fran DiNuzzo, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Integrated Biology Solutions business. "Our combined organizations will offer customers an unparalleled range of informatics solutions spanning applications in gene expression, genotyping and protein identification."

Silicon Genetics, privately held, has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in North America with inclusion on the Deloitte Technology FAST 500 and several other industry rankings. Silicon Genetics' customers include more than 600 leading pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions and major research organizations around the world. Based in Redwood City, Calif., Silicon Genetics employs 50 people, most of whom are expected to join Agilent.

Together, the staffs of Silicon Genetics and Agilent will form a life science informatics team that will be an incubator for informatics products spanning DNA, RNA, protein and pathway applications. The team will work on developing the products of Silicon Genetics, the Agilent Spectrum Mill proteomics workbench, the Agilent Synapsia informatics workbench and more.

"We plan to continue development and support of each of these product lines with a commitment to openness, industry standards, and interoperability with other instrument hardware and software providers," said DiNuzzo. "We see informatics as a key to advancing integrated biological research, and our goal is to provide customers with functionality in new research areas to enhance their productivity, creativity and research success."

Silicon Genetics' key products include:

- GeneSpring, a powerful visualization and analysis solution designed for use with genomic expression data on the desktop.

- Varia, the first generation of genetic analysis software designed for high-volume genetic variation analysis on a standalone workbench.

- GeNet, a scalable repository for expression data.

"This is an extremely exciting opportunity for Silicon Genetics' customers and employees," said Andrew Conway, the company's founder and chairman. "Agilent has broad knowledge of customer applications and instrumentation, and it is committed to integrated informatics and informatics partnerships. Our two companies will form a strong team with the opportunity to make significant contributions to an even larger audience of life science researchers."

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