A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Natus Medical (San Carlos, California) said it has completed its acquisition of Excel-Tech (Oakville, Ontario).

Natus completed the purchase by way of a statutory plan of arrangement in Canada under which Natus acquired all of the outstanding common shares of Xltek for C$3.25 a share in cash, valued at around $63.5 million.

Jim Hawkins, president/CEO of Natus, said, “We are very pleased to have acquired Xltek, as it affirms our position as a market leader in neurology and brings Natus one step closer to achieving our stated goal of growing revenue to a $250 million annual run-rate by the end of 2008.”

“This acquisition adds to our growth opportunities by broadening our product offerings in neurology, including Xltek’s products for the diagnosis of peripheral nervous system dysfunction,” Hawkins said. “Xltek’s full line of products for the neurology clinician expands our current product offerings with products that include a high-end long-term EEG patient monitoring system for the diagnosis of epilepsy, electromyography systems, or EMG systems, used in the diagnosis of neuropathies and myopathies, and intra-operative monitoring systems, or IOM systems, used during surgical procedures in the operating room.”

Natus said the acquisition will be immediately accretive to earnings, excluding associated one-time charges.

In other dealmaking activity:

• Harvard Bioscience (HBIO; Holliston, Massachusetts) said it has completed the sale of Genomic Solutions Division (Ann Arbor, Michigan) and its Belgian subsidiary, Maia Scientific (Geel), both part of its Capital Equipment business segment, to Digilab (Canton, Massachusetts).

The purchase price consists of $1 million in cash, plus additional consideration in the form of an earn-out based on 20% of the revenue generated by the acquired business as it is conducted by Digilab over the three-year period following the transaction.

HBIO retains the rights to certain deferred tax assets, which are currently offset by valuation allowances. The COPAS flow cytometry product line held by the company’s Union Biometrica U.S. and German subsidiaries, was not included in this sale, and HBIO said it intends to pursue a sale of this product line in a separate deal.

HBIO makes a range of specialized products, primarily scientific instruments and apparatus, used to advance life science research at pharmaceutical and biotech companies, universities and government laboratories.

Digilab provides products and services for the life sciences research and in-vitro diagnostics markets, including pharma and biotech industries, universities and governments.

• Opko Health (Miami) reported completing the acquisition of Ophthalmic Technologies (Toronto), a private Canadian company providing ocular imaging systems to eye care professionals.

OPKO says it is developing a preclinical pipeline of agents for ophthalmic diseases and markets diagnostic systems that complement its therapeutic products.