Abbott Acquires LIMS Company

Abbott will acquire STARLIMS Technologies Ltd., a provider of laboratory information management systems, for approximately $123 million in cash. The acquisition is intended to boost Abbott’s position in the global diagnostics market, “providing advanced web-based applications to help laboratories efficiently store, retrieve and analyze a significantly increasing volume of clinical, managerial and administrative data,” according to a company statement.

“The acquisition of STARLIMS will provide Abbott with leading products to build upon existing technologies and expertise in the emerging field of healthcare informatics,” said Edward L. Michael, executive vice president, Diagnostics Products, Abbott. “STARLIMS’ advanced web-based technologies can help our customers operate efficiently across the core laboratory, molecular and point-of care segments of the global diagnostics market.”

As Abbott integrates STARLIMS into its existing portfolio of laboratory information management products, the company will continue to support and expand the non-clinical market segments currently served by STARLIMS.

“We believe our laboratory information management solutions, which are widely used by government, manufacturing and life sciences organizations, have important applications in clinical laboratories for improving the access, exchange and analysis of patient and technical data,” said Itschak Friedman, chief executive officer of STARLIMS. “We look forward to becoming a part of Abbott and working together to serve our current customers and expand the availability of our technologies to address unmet needs in laboratories around the world.”

Mr. Friedman will continue to lead the STARLIMS team after the acquisition closes, which is expected to happen in 1Q10.