Bio-Techne to acquire CyVek for $60M

Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ: TECH) announced today that it has agreed to acquire CyVek, Inc. (CyVek) for $60 million in cash, plus a potential earn-out payment of up to $35 million based on CyVek revenue over the 30-month period following the closing and an additional potential earn-out payment based on CyVek revenue through 2020 in excess of $100 million. The closing of the acquisition is the result of CyVek having met pre-agreed commercial milestones. The transaction will be financed through a combination of cash on hand and a revolving line of credit facility.

CyVek, which has about 40 employees at its Connecticut facility, has developed a transformative immunoassay technology, CyPlex^TM, which integrates an innovatively designed microfluidic cartridge with a state-of-the-art analyzer to deliver the most advanced and efficient bench top immunoassay system. CyPlex's^TM ability to provide "sample to answer" test results precisely and quickly in a sealed disposable device makes it a very attractive platform for both research and clinical applications. The CyPlex^TM technology has the potential for broad market applicability.

Bio-Techne is a leading developer and manufacturer of purified proteins, notably cytokines and growth factors, antibodies, immunoassays and biologically active small molecule compounds which are sold to biomedical researchers and clinical research laboratories.

Charles R. Kummeth, President and Chief Executive Officer of Bio-Techne, commented, "The ability to include the highly valued Bio-Techne reagent content on the CyVek testing platform is viewed as an ideal way to leverage the maximum value from our extensive reagents portfolio. We are very pleased that Cyvek met its milestone, allowing us to bring this innovative technology platform into Bio-Techne several months earlier than expected! The field has always recognized that traditional multiplexing applications required some technical tradeoffs that ultimately impacted assay performance. We believe performance advantages can be derived through the parallel single-plex approach to multiplexing offered by the CyVek technology (CyPlex) This acquisition is a natural fit to Bio-Techne's product line and further complements the Protein Platforms business segment for Bio-Techne. Bio-Techne Quantikine kits are recognized world-wide as the benchmark for protein quantitation in biological fluids and we feel that CyPlex will complement the current immunoassay product lines from a multiplexing perspective."

CyVek Chief Executive Officer, Per Hellsund, added, "Strategically, the fit is excellent. We have always valued the superb quality of the Bio-Techne immunoassay reagents and having these be incorporated into our platform gives additional credibility and consumer confidence to the innovation that CyVek brings to this market via its CyPlex technology."

Fredrikson & Byron, P.A. served as Bio-Techne's legal counsel on the transaction.