PacBio enters an agreement to acquire Apton Biosystems for $85M upfront

PacBio announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Apton Biosystems, a Bay-Area-based company developing a high throughput short-read sequencer using state-of-the-art optics and image processing, paired with novel clustering and chemistry, that is designed to enable the sequencing of billions of clusters of DNA on one flow cell. As a combined organization, PacBio plans to integrate its Sequencing by Binding short-read chemistry into Apton’s high throughput instrument to offer a differentiated high throughput sequencer. PacBio’s acquisition agreement for Apton provides for upfront consideration of approximately $85M in an all-stock transaction consisting of approximately 6.3M shares of PacBio common stock plus an additional $25M in stock, cash, or a combination of stock and cash payable in connection with the achievement of $50M in revenue associated with a high throughput sequencer using Apton’s technology, for an overall transaction valued up to approximately $110M.