GE Healthcare to Acquire Orbotech's Subsidiary, Orbotech Medical Solutions Business for $9 Million Cash Upfront; Potentially $5 Million More in Milestones
WAUKESHA, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE - News), announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Orbotech Medical Solutions Ltd. (OMS), a subsidiary of Orbotech Ltd. (Orbotech), and a manufacturer of cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detectors used in GE Healthcare’s innovative Alcyone nuclear medicine technology. Under this agreement, GE Healthcare will pay U.S. $9 million in cash at closing for the assets of OMS, and up to an additional U.S. $5 million in cash, subject to the achievement of certain agreed performance-based milestones.
“We believe the future of nuclear medicine lies in the further development of CZT used in our Alcyone technology,” said Nathan Hermony, general manager Nuclear Medicine for GE Healthcare. “Through this acquisition, we will expand our investment in CZT technology to benefit our molecular imaging customers, bringing new nuclear medicine technologies to healthcare professionals worldwide.”
Representing a significant development in nuclear medicine technology, Alcyone technology is a nuclear cardiology platform that combines cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detectors, focused pin-hole collimation, 3D reconstruction, and stationary data acquisition to reduce acquisition time and dose and improve overall image quality and workflow. Available in SPECT (Discovery NM 530c) and SPECT/CT (Discovery NM/CT 570c) configurations, Alcyone technology enables views of cardiac anatomy and functionality with greater clarity and speed, resulting in scan times as short as three minutes or up to a four- fold reduction in dose. Alcyone technology helps clinicians provide patients with faster and more comfortable examinations and improve clinician confidence. Furthermore, unlike conventional nuclear imaging, with Alcyone’s focused pinhole collimation, all views are acquired simultaneously during a fully stationary SPECT acquisition, eliminating equipment movement during the scan and reducing the risk of motion artifacts.
Hermony added, “Alcyone technology opens the doors for developments of new applications such as dynamic acquisition for measuring blood flow and multiple isotopes to improve specificity of the nuclear cardiology examination.”
Commenting on the transaction, Rani Cohen, President and Chief Executive Officer of Orbotech, said, “We believe that a company such as GE will now be very well placed to pursue, and bring to successful commercialization, the cutting edge CZT technology developed by OMS for use in nuclear medicine imaging applications.”
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, and is expected to close by the first quarter of 2011.
About Orbotech
Orbotech is principally engaged in the design, development, manufacture, marketing and service of yield-enhancing and production solutions for specialized applications in the supply chain of the electronics industry. Orbotech’s products include automated optical inspection (AOI), production and process control systems for printed circuit boards (PCBs) and AOI, test and repair systems for flat panel displays (FPDs). The Company also markets computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) and engineering solutions for PCB production. In addition, through its subsidiary, Orbograph Ltd., the Company develops and markets character recognition solutions to banks and other financial institutions, and has developed a proprietary technology for web-based, location-independent data entry for use, among other things, in check and forms processing; and, through its subsidiaries, Orbotech Medical Denmark A/S and OMS, is engaged in the research and development, manufacture and sale of specialized products for application in medical nuclear imaging. Of Orbotech’s employees, more than one quarter are scientists and engineers, who integrate their multi-disciplinary knowledge, talents and skills to develop and provide sophisticated solutions and technologies designed to meet customers’ long-term needs. Orbotech maintains its headquarters and its primary research, development and manufacturing facilities in Israel, and more than 30 offices worldwide. Orbotech’s extensive network of marketing, sales and customer support teams throughout North America, Europe, the Pacific Rim, China and Japan deliver its knowledge and expertise directly to customers the world over. For more information visit www.orbotech.com.
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems.
Our "healthymagination" vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality and efficiency around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $16 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE - News). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.