For Immediate Release:
Waters Corporation Announces Acquisition of Creon Lab Control
Waters to Offer Total Lab Informatics Suite with Complementary Technologies
Milford, MA, - July 30, 2003 – Waters
Corporation announced today it has successfully completed
the acquisition of Creon
Lab Control (CLC) of Cologne, Germany for approximately
$16 million. CLC has been a privately held company with a legacy specializing
in Laboratory Information Management Software (LIMS) solutions and expected
2003 sales of approximately $10 million. This acquisition is expected to have
no material impact on Waters earnings for 2003. Most recently, CLC has introduced
the Q-DIS/DRAGON™ products for Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELN) and the
Q-DIS/PANDA™ products for Laboratory Data Management Software (LDMS).
Waters sees the ELN and LDMS applications as complementary technologies
that when integrated with Waters Empower™ Chromatography Software and
MassLynx 4.0 Software applications provide the basis for a total lab informatics
solution from one vendor—Waters.
"The acquisition of CLC provides Waters with a broader portfolio
of technology and products to help users manage lab information," said Art Caputo,
President of the Waters Division of Waters Corporation. "We have taken a major
step in strengthening our position as the partner of choice for the analytical
marketplace. CLC's products will extend Waters market-leading position in data
management software to deliver the most comprehensive and integrated solutions
for today's labs."
As the analytical market generates huge volumes of data, customers
are challenged not just generating and processing this data but mining it appropriately,
as well as presenting consolidated information to management and regulatory
agencies. The synergy between Waters robust tools and CLC's inventive products
benefits scientists challenged with acquiring, analyzing, managing and distributing
HPLC, MS and other relevant data. Bringing these two companies together enables
scientists to have powerful and consistent tools in a lab environment."
"We see the combination of Waters and CLC innovative software solutions
as advantageous to us," stated Dr. Ruediger Iden, Senior Vice President of Research
at BASF. "As we leverage our relationship with CLC, with the power of Waters
behind them now, confirms we are working with a leading lab informatics solutions
provider."
Moving forward, CLC will continue to offer their products and services
to the marketplace while tightening their field sales association with Waters
worldwide sales force. Development integration will continue to improve as both
teams work to provide seamless access to laboratory information from wherever
the user is located.
About Waters Corporation (www.waters.com),
Empower Chromatography Software, MassLynx Software, Q-DIS/DRAGON, Q-DIS/PANDA
Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT) is a world leader in analytical instrumentation,
chemistries, and support services with fiscal year 2002 revenues of $890 million
and more than 3,500 employees.
Introduced in March of 2002, Empower Software is Waters flagship
chromatography product. Empower Software represents a fundamental shift in chromatography
data system (CDS) usability by replacing cumbersome add-ins (i.e., system components
that provide added functionality through distinct installations) to a more scaleable
switch-on approach.
MassLynx Software is Waters mass spectroscopy informatics suite
providing scientists with the fundamental data platform for acquiring, analyzing,
managing and distributing mass spectrometry information. Featuring intelligent
instrument control and the ability to acquire nominal mass, exact mass, MS/MS
and exact mass MS/MS data, MassLynx Software offers the versatility required
in today's labs.
Q-DIS/DRAGON is the innovative generic electronic laboratory notebook
for all workplaces in an analytical organization: from chemical, pharmaceutical
to biological research as well as for routine work. Q-DIS/DRAGON facilitates
centralized or distributed long-term storage of knowledge independent of language
or type of information. It provides functionality according to rules of good
laboratory notebook practices and provides a robust user interface to data,
information, knowledge management, and logistics systems.
Q-DIS/PANDA is a platform-independent, easy to use, 100% web-based
central storage system that collects all types of formerly scattered information
as an electronic record to generate a knowledge-based archive. The data stored
are accessible by relevant persons at various locations throughout the organization.
Contact: Brian J. Murphy
Waters Corporation
508-482-2614
brian_j_murphy@waters.com
Waters, Empower, MassLynx, Q-DIS/DRAGON, and Q-DIS/PANDA are trademarks
of the Waters Corporation.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT
This release contains "forward-looking" statements regarding
future results and events, including statements regarding expected financial
results, future growth and customer demand that involve a number of risks and
uncertainties. For this purpose, any statements contained herein that are not
statements of historical fact may be deemed forward looking statements. Without
limiting the foregoing, the words, "believes", "anticipates",
"plans", "expects", "intends", "appears",
"estimates", "projects", and similar expressions are intended
to identify forward looking statements. The Company's actual future results
may differ significantly from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements
within this release for a variety of reasons including and without limitation:
loss of market share through competition, introduction of competing products
by other companies, pressures on prices from competitors and/or customers, regulatory
obstacles to new product introductions, lack of acceptance of new products,
changes in the demands of the Company's healthcare and pharmaceutical company
customers, changes in the healthcare market and the pharmaceutical industry,
changes in distribution of the Company's products, the short-term effect on
sales and expenses as a result of the formerly announced combination of the
Waters and Micromass sales, service and distribution organizations, and foreign
exchange fluctuations. Such factors and others are discussed more fully in the
section entitled "Risk Factors" of the Company's Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2002, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
which "Risk Factors" discussion is incorporated by reference in this
press release. The forward-looking statements included in this press release
represent the Company's estimates as of the date of this press release and should
not be relied upon as representing the Company's estimates or views as of any
date subsequent to the date of this press release. The Company specifically
disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the future.
About CREON·LAB·CONTROL AG
CREON·LAB·CONTROL is the leading application platform provider
for the chemical, pharmaceutical and life science industry, covering the whole
field of scientific knowledge handling. This includes data management at the
point of collection, evaluation, interlinking, archiving and retrieval of information
to documentation for R&D and quality management organizations.
CREON·LAB·CONTROL is the result of a powerful merger of the leading
IT specialists Creon Software and LabControl in 2000. Together, the company
represents about twenty years of experience in the field of chem- and bioinformatics.
CREON·LAB·CONTROL is an internationally operating organization and most staff
holds degrees and further degrees in both computer and natural sciences. This
expertise flows into the development of tailored IT solutions and services for
our respective customers.
The Q-DIS Corporate Backbone is the technology CREON·LAB·CONTROL
provides to enable organizations to easy build up an infrastructure for a lot
of common tasks in a pharmaceutical, biotech or chemical oriented company. It
delivers single infrastructure for: Laboratory Information Management (LIMS),
Electronic Lab Notebooks, Electronic Record Management, Analytical Workflow,
Automatic Dereplication, Automatic Structure Validation, Distribution of Scientific
Information, Distribution of SOP's, Analytical productivity tools and Stereoselective
Substructure Search.
At CREON·LAB·CONTROL products are developed in cooperation with
high profile industry partners. Teamwork like this sets standards in the area
of software technology from which everyone benefits. For more information please
visit our homepage
www.creonlabcontrol.com