October 17, 2000
CONTACT: Craig McCollam
Dionex Corporation
(408) 481-4107
Dionex Enters Proteomics Market with the Acquisition of LC Packings
FOR RELEASE TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2000 1:30 P.M. PDT
Sunnyvale, CA: Today, A. Blaine Bowman, President and CEO of Dionex Corporation
(NASDAQ: DNEX), announced the acquisition of LC Packings by Dionex Corporation.
LC Packings is a privately held company that specializes in the design,
manufacturing, and sale of micro, capillary, and nano scale liquid
chromatography instrumentation, consumables, and software. LC Packings is
headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and has a North American sales
operation based in San Francisco, California. Its products generated annual
revenues of approximately $4 million in the fiscal year ended
December 31, 1999.
LC Packings is the world's leading supplier of micro, capillary, and nano scale
chromatography systems, capillary columns, and flow splitters, specifically
designed for coupling to the high powered mass spectrometers used in Proteomics
and Drug Discovery research and development. Capillary and nano
LC/MS are among the most powerful tools available to Proteomics researchers. In
much of Proteomics research today, very small amounts of complex mixtures of
biomolecules must be separated and characterized. The small sample size dictates
that the scale of the HPLC is also miniaturized, so that good sample sensitivity
and recovery are achieved. The LC Packings chromatography systems are
ideally suited for this purpose. Other life science applications where capillary
and nano LC and LC/MS are of growing importance include drug metabolism,
pharmacokinetics, and Genomics applications such as DNA fragment analysis,
mutation screening, and SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) analysis.
Commenting on the acquisition, Mr. Bowman said, "I am excited about the addition
of LC Packings' technologies, people, and product lines to our current HPLC
offerings. This will greatly improve our access to the leaders in Proteomics
research, and our insight into the quickly developing needs of the major
pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies doing this important work." Further
commenting on the acquisition, Dr. Michael Merion, VP of Marketing at Dionex
said, "The combination of LC Packings' unique technologies with our Summit
HPLC, CHROMELEON software, and our ProPac, CarboPac, and DNAPac separation
chemistries, will provide a unique and powerful set of problem solving tools for
the rapidly growing Pharmaceutical industry."
Dr. Jean-Pierre Chervet, President of LC Packings added,"I am very pleased to
have LC Packings join Dionex. Our UltiMate chromatography system and our unique
capillary and nano scale chromatography columns will now have the support of the
Dionex worldwide resources. This will allow us to focus our creativity and
energy on the rapidly changing needs of the Proteomics researcher."
Dionex expects to record an after-tax charge against earnings of between $1.0
and $2.0 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2001 in connection with this
acquisition.
Dionex Corporation is a leading manufacturer and marketer of chromatography and
extraction systems for chemical and pharmaceutical analysis. The Company's
systems are used by the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, environmental, chemical,
power generation, and electronics industries, in a wide variety of applications.
Certain statements regarding sales and earnings contained herein that are not
purely historical are forward looking statements. Factors that may cause actual
results to differ from these statements are foreign currency fluctuations,
competition from other companies and products, economic conditions in the
areas in which the company sells its products, ability to manufacture products
on an efficient and timely basis and at a reasonable cost and in sufficient
volume, and existing product obsolescence. These factors and other risk factors
and uncertainties are discussed in greater detail in Dionex's most recent
Report on Forms 10-K and 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
