A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

General Electric (Fairfield, Connecticut) reported that it has agreed to buy Whatman (London), the maker of DNA-based products for drug research and police laboratories, for $717 million (£363 million), GE adding filters and equipment for its healthcare business with the buy.

Investors in Whatman will get 270 pence a share, GE said in a statement. It said that this is 12% more than Whatman’s closing price on Feb. 1, the last trading day before disclosure of the purchase, and 31% more than the closing price on Jan. 14, the day before Whatman reported it had been approached as a target.

GE Healthcare (Princeton, New Jersey) a subsidiary of General Electric will use Whatman’s products to expand its life sciences unit, formed with the 2004 purchase of Amersham (Buckinghamshire, UK). The GE life-sciences unit, which has $1.3 billion in annual revenue and 3,800 workers, will absorb Whatman’s $230 million in revenue and 1,100 employees.

“We believe Whatman has a very, very strong strategic plan,” Peter Ehrenheim, head of the GE life-sciences unit, said during a conference call. “And we will continue to execute basically that plan, and potentially accelerate that plan because we can put more resources behind it.”

Whatman CEO Kieran Murphy will remain in that position as GE runs the company as a separate entity for now, executives said. There may be some administrative overlap among teams, Ehrenheim said.

GE Healthcare has about 46,000 employees. The Chalfont, St. Giles, England-based segment of GE provided $17 billion of the parent company’s $172.7 billion in sales last year.

GE declined 79 cents, or 2.2%, to $35.37 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange trading. Whatman rose 23.25 pence, or 9.6 %, to 265.25 pence at the close of trading in London.

In other deal-making:

• Affymetrix (Santa Clara, California) reported completing its acquisition of USB (Cleveland), a private company developing molecular biology and biochemical reagent products. With completion of the acquisition, USB stockholders received about $75 million in cash.

“The acquisition of USB immediately expands our talent base, enhances our whole-product solution offering and creates new, long-term growth opportunities,” said Kevin King, president of Affymetrix. “Our customers will now be able to take advantage of a stronger portfolio of GeneChip products today and the incorporation of next-generation sequencing reagents into the products of tomorrow.”

USB develops enzymes, reagents and kits for life sciences research and industrial applications. The company’s offerings are grouped into three major product lines: molecular biology enzymes and kits, biochemical reagents, and products used in membrane protein research applications.

USB has about 100 employees who will be joining Affymetrix.

Affymetrix GeneChip microarray technology is used for analyzing complex genetic information. Its products are designed to accelerate genetic research and enable scientists to develop diagnostics and tailor treatments for individual patients by identifying and measuring the genetic information associated with complex diseases.

• Roche Holdings (Basel Switzerland) said it was not aware of any applicable antitrust law that would prohibit its $3.4 billion offer for Ventana Medical Systems (Tucson, Arizona), developer of tissue-based cancer diagnostics, and expects to complete the offer today.

After months of sometimes tense negotiating, Roche finally sweetened its offer for Ventana to $89.50 a share in cash two weeks ago.

Ventana, who felt the original unsolicited $75 a share offer, did not reflect its true value, said both boards have approved a merger agreement at the improved offer price and that its board recommends shareholders tender their shares to Roche.

Greenhill & Co. and Citi acted as financial advisors to Roche and Davis Polk & Wardwell acted as legal counsel.

• Wolters Kluwer Health (Conshocken, Pennsylvania) a division of Wolters Kluwer (Amsterdam), a provider of information for professionals and students in medicine, nursing, allied health, pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry, reported that it has acquired a minority interest in Logical Images (Rochester, New York). Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The two companies plan to integrate Logical Images’ VisualDx system with Wolters Kluwer Health’s Clin-eguide clinical decision support tool to deliver clinicians visual differential diagnosis within an easy online clinical decision support system.

Clin-eguide helps physicians and other providers make diagnosis and treatment decisions through online access to evidence-based medical information. It integrates content from Ovid, Facts & Comparisons and Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, as well as other publishers.

Designed for clinicians within hospitals, clinics and public health, VisualDx visual clinical decision support software merges medical images with clinical information to guide diagnosis, treatment, and management of visually identifiable diseases.

“Wolters Kluwer Health is a leader in clinical decision support, and our mission is to improve patient outcomes by providing the most accurate and up-to-date medical evidence at the point of care,” said Jeff McCaulley, president/CEO of Wolters Kluwer Health.

“Together, Clin-eguide and VisualDx provide an unmatched clinical decision solution. We combine the medical content and publishing experience of trusted Wolters Kluwer Health sources, like Ovid and Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, with customized, visual differential diagnosis that can lead to faster, more accurate diagnosis and treatment,” said Arvind Subramanian, president/CEO, of Wolters Kluwer Health Clinical Solutions and ProVation Medical.

• NewCardio (San Jose, California) reported the closing of a share exchange agreement with Marine Park Holdings (New York) whereby NewCardio is now a public company by way of reverse merger.

NewCardio’s common stock is currently quoted for trading on the Over the Counter Bulletin Board under the symbol NWCI.OB.

With closing of the agreement, the company said it completed a private placement financing of $8.2 million of 10% redeemable, non-voting Series A convertible preferred stock, plus warrants. Platinum-Montaur Life Sciences, and Vision Capital Advisors, participated in the financing.

“This is an exciting time for NewCardio as this transaction provides us with the financial flexibility to pursue our strategy and to aggressively participate in the growth of the cardiovascular diagnostic market,” said Dr. Branislav Vajdic, president/CEO of NewCardio and one of its co-founders.