Life Technologies Completes Sale of Mass Spectrometry Business for US$450 Million

Aird & Berlis LLP acted as Canadian counsel to Life Technologies Corporation on the sale of its interest in its mass spectrometry business to Danaher Corporation for US$450 million in cash. Danaher also acquired the balance of the mass spectrometry business from Life Technologies’ joint venture partner, MDS Analytical Technologies, a division of MDS Inc. The transaction was completed in January 2010.

Life Technologies is a global biotechnology tools company providing premier systems, consumables, and services for scientific researchers around the world. Life Technologies was created by the combination of Invitrogen Corporation and Applied Biosystems, Inc. in November 2008. The California-based company employs approximately 9,500 people, with a presence in more than 100 countries. The company owns approximately 3,600 patents and exclusive licences, and has annual sales of more than $3 billion.

The corporate team from Aird & Berlis LLP was led by Martin Kovnats and included Peter Czegledy and Jeffrey Merk. Other core team members included partners Barbara Worndl, Bill VanderBurgh, Bernie McGarva, Angela Swan, Andrew Nicholls and Ken Clark.