A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Varian Medical Systems (Palo Alto, California) reported completing the acquisition of Accel Instruments (Bergisch Gladbach, Germany), a privately held supplier of scientific research instruments and proton therapy systems for cancer treatment.Varian paid about $30 million to acquire 100% of Accel, including its bank debt.

“We are pleased to add this promising new business to our growth portfolio,” said Tim Guertin, president/CEO of Varian Medical Systems. “With Accel Instruments, we have the opportunity to build a several hundred million dollar business based on improving cancer care with a clinically practical and affordable system for proton therapy.”

Accel has about $30 million in annual revenues. Varian said it expects that the addition of Accel’s operations will reduce earnings per diluted share by about 6 cents to 7 cents to between $1.82 and $1.85 in FY07, be about neutral in FY08, and be accretive thereafter. Results for Accel will be included in Varian’s “other” business category.

Accel has about 250 employees. The business will report to Varian Vice President Lester Boeh, who is responsible for managing the company’s portfolio of emerging businesses.

Varian Medical Systems is a maker of medical products for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy, brachytherapy and radiosurgery. The company also is also a supplier of X-ray tubes and digital detectors for imaging in medical, scientific and industrial applications.

Tm Bioscience (Toronto), a developer of commercial genetic testing systems, confirmed that the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has granted an interim order approving the holding of a special meeting of Tm shareholders and option holders on Feb. 23 to approve the merger with Luminex (Austin, Texas)

Tm shareholders and optionholders of record at the close of business on Jan. 22 will be entitled to vote on the merger deal.

Luminex and Tm reported the merger plan in mid-December..

Each Tm Bioscience share will be exchanged for 0.06 shares of Luminex common stock. The per-share consideration represents a 41.5% premium for Tm shares, based on the closing price of a share of Tm common stock and Luminex common stock on Dec. 14, the last trading day prior to the announcement of the acquisition.

Assuming Tm shareholders and optionholders approve the deal, final court approval will be required and sought from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on or about Feb. 27. Assuming all other conditions are satisfied, the transaction is expected to close during the week of receipt of the final court approval.

Tm is developing DNA-based tests for genetic disorders, drug metabolism and infectious diseases.

In other deal activity:

Illumina (San Diego) reported that it completed its acquisition of Solexa (Hayward, California) in a stock-for-stock merger valued at about $600 million.

In special meetings of stockholders, Solexa stockholders approved the merger agreement Illumina and Solexa entered into on Nov. 12, 2006, and Illumina stockholders approved the issuance of shares of Illumina common stock for the acquisition of Solexa.

Solexa stockholders will receive 0.344 of a share of Illumina common stock for each share of Solexa common stock.

“We are excited to join the two companies, creating the only company with genome-scale technology for genotyping, gene expression, and sequencing, the three cornerstones of modern genetic analysis,” said Jay Flatley, president/CEO of Illumina. “With Solexa’s recent technical achievements we look forward to the rapid commercialization of our next-generation sequencing platform.”

In connection with the merger, the size of Illumina’s board of directors was increased from eight to ten members. The two newly appointed members are Blaine Bowman and Roy Whitfield both of whom were members of Solexa’s board of directors.