Tech Dealmaker Awards

Haemonetics Corp. liked the product so much they bought the company.

Haemonetics had spent time at Chicago-based nanotechnology firm Arryx Inc. looking at its optical technology and collaborating on development of blood separation technologies since October 2004. During that time, Haemonetics purchased a 19 percent minority stake in the company. In July 2006, Haemonetics completed its acquisition of Arryx Inc. for $26 million in cash.

Arryx was servicing the agricultural industry by using its highly advanced optical lasers to separate bull semen for X or Y predominates to select the sex of cattle — males for the steer industry and females for the dairy industry. Haemonetics vice president Gary Stacey figured out the technique could be used for — at the very least — separating out red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.

According to William Still, Haemonetics’s vice president of business development, the company kept the development of this technology close to the vest. Still explained that these “blood chips” could be used to check a patient’s blood type in seconds and test for diseases like HIV and hepatitis relatively simply and quickly.

“What we found was that this technology had a lot broader applications in the diagnostic world,” he said. “It is honestly one of the most exciting and dynamic platform technologies that I have ever seen in my 13 years in the medical device industry.”

Once those kinds of sentiments multiplied, Haemonetics knew it was time for a full-on acquisition.

— Stephen Desantis is a freelance writer in Roxbury.

Category

Top Hardware M&A Deals Buy Side

The Deal

Haemonetics Corp. bought Arryx Inc. for $26 million. Closed on June 18, 2006.

Key Executives

Brad Nutter, CEO; Ronald J. Ryan, CFO; James O’Shaughnessy, general counsel; Gary Stacy, senior vice president; William Still, vice president.

Deal advisers

Legal: Goodwin Procter LLP.
Financial: Health Advances.

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