Life Technologies to acquire Ion Torrent in $375 million stock and cash - plus possible $350 million - deal

Life Technologies Corp, a provider of innovative life science solutions formed by the merger of Applied Biosystems and Invitrogen in late 2008, says it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Ion Torrent for $375 million in cash and stock, in a deal which will expand its DNA sequencing business.

Under the terms of the accord, Ion Torrent is entitled to additional $350 million in cash and stock on the achievement of certain technical and time-based milestones through 2012. Life Technologies' board of directors has approved an additional share repurchase program in order to repurchase its shares associated with the stock portion of the consideration. The impact on total share count is expected to be neutral.

Formed by life sciences pioneer Jonathan Rothberg, founder of CuraGen, 454 Life Sciences and co-founder of Raindance Technologies, Ion Torrent has revolutionized DNA sequencing by enabling a direct connection between chemical and digital information through the use of proven semiconductor technology. Ion Torrent's proprietary chip-based sequencing represents a new paradigm in DNA sequencing by using PostLight sequencing technology, the first of its kind to eliminate the cost and complexity associated with the extended optical detection currently used in all other sequencing platforms.