BioLife Solutions Inc., a developer and supplier of a portfolio of best-in-class bioproduction tools for cell and gene therapies, has acquired substantially all of the assets of Custom Biogenic Systems Inc. BioLife is based in Bothwell, Washington.
CBS, a privately held company with operations located near Detroit, is a global leader in the design and manufacture of state-of-the-art liquid nitrogen laboratory freezers and cryogenic equipment. Revenue for 2019 is expected to be between $10 million and $11 million.
John Brothers, CBS’s founder, sole shareholder and CEO, received $11 million in cash and $4 million of BioLife common stock in consideration for the asset sale. Brothers, now vice president, advanced freezer technologies, at BioLife, may earn up to an additional $15 million in cash or stock over the next five years, based on exceeding certain annual new product revenue goals.
"The entire CBS team is excited to join BioLife,” Brothers said in a statement. “I started the company in 1987 with a goal to design and offer advanced liquid nitrogen freezers to safely store high-value biologic material. I'm thrilled to start this next chapter in the history of CBS and to leverage BioLife's sales and marketing power, and their relationships in the cell and gene therapy industry."
BioLife CFO Roderick de Greef added: "We expect the CBS product line will contribute between $1 million to $2 million in revenue for 2019, and although we will realize some gross margin compression in the near term, we expect this transaction will be accretive on an adjusted EPS basis and contribute to adjusted EBITDA in 2020.
"With the addition of CBS, the full-year impact of the Astero Bio and SAVSU acquisitions, and continued media revenue growth, we believe 2020 revenue will be between $50 million and $56 million, or 69% to 90% growth over the midpoint of our 2019 guidance. We will provide additional 2020 financial guidance during our 2019 fourth-quarter and full-year conference call planned for March of next year."