Rehovot-based biotechnology company Ethrog was sold to US company Invitrogen for $15.1 million.
The holder of the most shares in Ethrog is Tel Aviv Stock Exchange-listed software company LIMS Laboratory Information and Managment Systems, which reported an after-tax expected capital gain of NIS 13 million. Other shareholders in Ethrog are cofounder, chairman, CEO Uri Yogev and cofounder Dr. Shmuel Cabilly.
Ethrog specializes in the development, manufacture, and marketing of devices for separating biological molecules. The company recently developed the DNA E-Gel product line of electrophoresis devices. Electrophoresis is a method of separating molecules, based on the movement of ions in an electric field. Ethrog commenced sales in 1998, and its 1999 revenues totaled NIS 3.3 million, mostly from E-Gel sales.
The negotiations with Invitrogen for acquiring Ethrog commenced at the end of 1999. The price at the time was estimated at $10 million. California-based Invitrogen, Ethrog's principal distributor in Europe and the US, develops, manufactures, and markets research tools in kit form and provides other research products and services to corporate, academic and government entities.
Invitrogen, which is traded at a value of $1.77 billion, had $27.3 million revenues and a $1.8 million loss in the first quarter. The company said that Ethrog would contribute to completing its line of products, after acquiring another company, NOVEX, in the same field last August.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on June 22, 2000