Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX) has agreed to sell a portion of its Bioscience Division to glassware producer Corning in a $730 million deal.
The deal includes most of its Discovery Labware unit from its Bioscience Division. The sale by the Franklin Lakes, New Jersey company will not include BD’s advanced bioprocessing platform, a company statement said. Corning is buying the unit to help grow its Life Science Division.
BD’s Bioscience Division is made up of two units: cell analysis and discovery labs, the smaller of the two. Revenue for the Bioscience Division was relatively flat in the fourth quarter of 2011 due to reduced research funding in the U.S. as well as reduced demand for high-end instruments, according to the company’s earnings report. Bioscience operating income for the first quarter was $83 million, or 26 percent of bioscience revenue, compared with $90 million, or 29 percent of segment revenue, in the prior year’s quarter. Revenue for the full year was $317 million compared with $314 million the previous year.
A Morningstar report published today notes that BD will probably use the proceeds of the sale to build up its cell analysis and diagnostics business.
With the disposition of labware, BD’s competitive position in bioscience strengthens (on a product mix alone), and the company will probably use the proceeds from the sale for further investment in the cell analysis business as well as the diagnostics segment.
The deal is the latest in the life science area, in a year that is expected to see greater growth in the sector.
