PACKARD BIOSCIENCE EXHIBIT 99.1
Contact: Packard BioScience
Mike Zebarth
Tel: (203) 639-2340
Fax: (203) 235-1347
E-mail: mzebarth@packardbioscience.com
Noonan/Russo Communications, Inc.
Tel: (212) 696-4455
John Capodanno, ext. 246 (investors); j.capodanno@noonanrusso.com
Hala Bashir, ext. 356 (media); h.bashir@noonanrusso.com
PACKARD BIOSCIENCE COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF
GSLI LIFE SCIENCES -- Purchase Positions Packard as a
Leading Provider of Biochip and Microarray Products --
Meriden, Connecticut, October 2, 2000 -- Packard BioScience Company (Nasdaq:
PBSC) announced today that the company has acquired GSLI Life Sciences, a
division of GSI Lumonics, Inc. (Nasdaq: GSLI; Toronto Exchange: LSI), a leading
provider of imaging equipment for biochip and microarray applications. In
addition to the imaging product line, Packard has also acquired the
bioinformatics software products of GSLI Life Sciences. Packard purchased the
company for $40M in cash and approximately 4.6 million shares of Packard common
stock (with an adjustment based on net assets acquired). The acquisition will be
accounted for as a purchase and is anticipated to be accretive to Packard's cash
EPS in 2002 and will have a nominal effect prior to that time.
The GSLI Life Sciences group will become a part of Packard BioChip Technologies,
LLC, a new entity formed to highlight Packard's various technologies in the area
of biochips. Packard seeks to be a leading provider of biochips and microarray
analysis tools, the key enabling technologies for post-genomics and drug
discovery research.
Biochips are arrays of miniature testing sites that allow vast numbers of
simultaneous experiments to be conducted in a very small area -- leading to
research breakthroughs and ultimately bringing life-enhancing therapies to
market much faster. GSLI Life Sciences' laser detection and data analysis, which
are necessary to extract results from such microarray experiments, combined with
Packard's novel biochip formats and patented production technology, will
establish an integrated biochip and microarray production and analysis platform.
GSLI Life Sciences' ScanArray(R) product line is the established market leader
in the fast growing area of laser scanning for biochip and microarray analysis.
Due to this market success, GSLI Life Sciences is expecting to grow
approximately 50% yearly for the next several years on the basis of $17 million
in revenues for the twelve months ended June 30,2000. GSLI Life Sciences'
products are used in applications including single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)
detection, gene expression analysis, protein studies and drug discovery.
"We are very excited about this announcement," said Emery Olcott, Chairman and
CEO of Packard BioScience. "It underscores our commitment to developing broad,
integrated solutions for the drug discovery process. With this acquisition
Packard will be among the top three global providers of biochip and microarray
tools for genomic and proteomic analysis. As we move beyond the post-genome era,
DNA microarray and biochip technology must become widely available as
cost-effective, bench-top research tools. Packard is well positioned to meet
this need by developing low-cost, custom designed products which combine
Packard's proprietary Biochip Arrayer(TM) production technology with GSLI's
ScanArray(R) readers and bioinformatics software.
Biochips containing microarrays of genetic information promise to be one of the
most important research tools in the post-genome era. They are one of the very
few platforms that support the highly parallel analysis needed to exploit the
explosive growth in genetic information resulting from the sequencing of the
human genome. Initial applications will be in drug discovery, pharmacology and
clinical research. The emerging field of pharmacogenomics, which explores an
individual's genetically determined response to drugs, is particularly expected
to benefit from biochip analysis, eventually leading to mass diagnostic and
personalized medicine applications. Other biochip applications will include
forensics, toxicology and epidemiological research.
"GSI Lumonics' Life Science potential will be best realized with a strategic
partner such as Packard BioScience which is focused purely on the life sciences
market," said Charles Winston, President & CEO, GSI Lumonics. "By combining our
technology and employees with Packard's complementary product lines and
worldwide distribution network, Packard will continue to rapidly grow the
business."
GSI Lumonics Inc. supplies laser-based automated advanced manufacturing systems,
components and services to the semiconductor, electronics and automotive markets
and provides precision optics for telecommunications. GSI Lumonics' common
shares are listed on Nasdaq (GSLI) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (LSI). The
company's web site address is www.gsilumonics.com.
Packard BioScience Company is a leading global developer, manufacturer and
marketer of instruments and related consumables and services for use in the life
sciences research and nuclear industries. The Company is primarily focused on
the rapidly growing areas of drug discovery, genomics and biochip analysis and
is continuing to develop integrated platforms based on a wide range of
technologies and instrumentation. Packard's experience in working in more than
60 countries with market leading customers has allowed the Company to establish
a worldwide leadership position in many of its primary product categories, with
well-recognized brand names and a reputation for high quality, reliable
instruments. Recently, Packard has focused on the development of enabling
biochip technologies, and has started to exploit its pioneering biochip
production patents through both direct sales of biochip products as well as
through licensing agreements with other biochip manufacturers such as Motorola,
Inc.
Certain statements contained herein are "forward looking" statements which
involve a high degree of risk and uncertainty, including, without limitation,
the prospective statements regarding the expected expansion of biochip
applications and our ability to capitalize on such expansion, and may be
identified by the use of forward-looking words or phrases such as "expected,"
"expecting" or "anticipated." Many factors could cause actual results to differ
materially from these statements including, without limitation, loss of market
share from competition, our ability to successfully introduce new products and
platforms, market acceptance of new products and platforms, our ability to
protect our intellectual property, not infringing on the intellectual property
rights of others, changes in the markets we serve and economic issues such as
interest rate and foreign exchange fluctuations. These and other risk factors
are discussed in detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.