Boston, MA (July 18, 2011) – Covington Associates announced today that it acted as exclusive financial advisor to Magellan Biosciences in its sale of TREK Diagnostic Systems, the Company’s microbiology business, to Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO). Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
With the acquisition of TREK, Thermo Fisher’s microbiology testing offerings will be complemented by TREK’s market leading automation technologies. The sale will allow Magellan to focus all of its resources on its Leadcare® and Dynex® businesses, both of which have been experiencing strong growth.
“Thermo Fisher is an ideal home for the TREK business and its 150 employees around the world,” commented Magellan’s President and CEO, Hiroshi Uchida, PhD. “TREK’s automated blood culture, microbial identification, and microbial susceptibility testing platforms complement Thermo Fisher’s portfolio of microbiology technologies. We will now focus on realizing our ambitious plans for expanding the reach and growth of our remaining businesses,” Dr. Uchida continued. “This is an exciting time for Magellan.”
“This acquisition brings together TREK’s industry-leading products for automated microbiology testing in the clinical, pharmaceutical research and veterinary markets with Thermo Fisher ‘s global reach and well-established microbiology testing franchise,” said Steve Mermelstein, Managing Director at Covington Associates and lead advisor on the transaction.
About Magellan
Founded in 2004, Magellan is a VC-backed diagnostic company whose innovative technologies make diagnostic testing easier, more cost-effective, and less labor intensive. The Company’s products deliver the timely information that clinicians need to make appropriate treatment decisions and improve outcomes for patients. They include LeadCare-brand rapid point-of-care systems to screen children and adults for lead poisoning and Dynex®-brand automated ELISA processing systems for a wide variety of immunoassays – from infectious disease to autoimmune and food safety testing.
To learn more about Magellan, please visit www.magellanbio.com.
About Covington Associates LLC
Covington Associates is a specialty investment banking firm founded in 1991 serving business service, consumer, industrial, healthcare, and technology companies throughout the country. Focused on mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity capital raising, debt and equity restructuring, and strategic advisory assignments for middle market companies, Covington Associates has completed transactions ranging in value from $10 million to nearly $2 billion for both private and publicly traded companies.