Fluidigm Completes Acquisition of InstruNor AS

Acquisition to expand Fluidigm’s industry-leading mass cytometry capabilities and address flow cytometry markets with the addition of fully automated sample prep

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Feb. 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fluidigm Corporation (Nasdaq: FLDM), an innovative biotechnology tools provider with a vision to improve life through comprehensive health insight, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of InstruNor AS, the privately held provider of the only fully integrated sample preparation system for flow and mass cytometry. InstruNor AS was founded by Torstein Ljungmann, Øystein Ljungmann and John-Erik Hassel. The company was privately held and based outside Oslo, Norway.

According to industry and company estimates, sample preparation for flow and mass cytometry analysis is a $1.3 billion market opportunity that is growing at a double-digit pace, including a mix of labor and instrument resources dedicated to preparing samples for mass cytometry and flow cytometry instruments. Fluidigm estimates that the immediate serviceable market for this product is $225 million per year.

“High-parameter mass cytometry is increasingly being applied to disease and therapy research with more than 1,000 publications, an increase of more than 55 percent since the end of 2018,” said Chris Linthwaite, Fluidigm President and CEO. “Researchers using mass cytometry on larger sample sets require robust, reproducible and high-quality sample preparation support matched to their throughput requirements. InstruNor is an exciting addition to Fluidigm’s mass cytometry business, supporting our entry into the sample prep market for cytometry analysis. This acquisition strengthens our leadership in offering more complete and high-throughput workflows for pharma-biotech, contract research organization and academic medical research customers. With InstruNor’s technology, we will be able to expand our capabilities to include fully automated, walkaway sample preparation for flow and mass cytometry.”

“We are excited to join Fluidigm to take our technology to the next level,” said John-Erik Hassel, an InstruNor co-founder. “By combining our technology with Fluidigm’s existing channel, marketing and manufacturing capabilities, we can expand our market reach and bring efficiencies to flow and mass cytometry customer workflows worldwide.”

In the acquisition, Fluidigm purchased all outstanding shares of InstruNor for approximately $7.2 million, including $5.2 million in cash and approximately $2 million in stock. InstruNor will become a part of Fluidigm’s mass cytometry business. Fluidigm expects the transaction to be accretive to earnings in 2021.