HEIDELBERG, Germany, & CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 15, 2002--LION bioscience AG (Neuer Markt: LIO, WKN 504 350, Nasdaq: LEON) today announced that it has agreed to acquire NetGenics, Inc., a privately held company that builds integrated informatics solutions, in exchange for approximately 1.12 million LION shares coming from authorized capital. These LION shares will be subject to a lockup for a 180 day period after closing. The transaction is expected to close in the first calendar quarter of 2002. Upon completion of the transaction, NetGenics will become a wholly owned subsidiary of LION.
The integration of biological and chemical information is key and has been the missing link for large knowledge management solutions and unattainable for Life Science organizations up to now. Different disciplines can now easily be combined through the merger of LION's unique integration technology SRS with NetGenics' integration environment DiscoveryCenter(TM), creating the broadest and most versatile platform in the Life Sciences and making it available to a large number of end users. Through the combination of NetGenics' and LION's products and expertise in informatics and sciences, the life science industry is expected to rapidly benefit from this enhanced offering.
``Through the merger we overcome a major hurdle for the life science industry: the easy integration of information from different disciplines. By owning and merging SRS with DiscoveryCenter(TM) we can now offer the ultimate standard platform for parallel knowledge management of multiple disciplines to the whole Life Science industry as a product. Therefore we expect very strong demand from the industry for it'' said Dr. Friedrich von Bohlen, CEO of LION bioscience. ``With our professional services and our partners we are now uniquely positioned to establish integrated alliances to deliver complete information and knowledge management solutions for our customers in the industry.''
LION will now deliver i-biology® solutions not only as custom-made service, but also as a modular off-the-shelf package for a broader audience in the Pharma and Life Science communities. The novel offering will be further complemented by DiscoveryLink(TM), the integration technology of IBM, which has historically been an independent partner with both companies.
``This is a very complementary merger both, from a technology and business perspective. SRS has long been the powerhouse for back-end data integration and DiscoveryCenter(TM) has emerged as a landmark middleware and application integration environment. The prospect of using both in combination to create life sciences knowledge management solutions is extremely exciting and promises strong interest for solution support from the whole industry,'' said Manuel J. Glynias, President and CEO of NetGenics.
``Customers are the big winners with this merger,'' said Dr. Caroline Kovac, general manager, IBM Life Sciences. ``There is tremendous synergy between LION and NetGenics. The marriage of their technologies and IBM DiscoveryLink(TM) will result in the most powerful data integration platform in the industry, which will help put drug discovery and development on a fast track.''
The completion of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.
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Conference Call
LION bioscience senior management will host a
conference call today at 4:00PM (CET) / 3:00
PM (GMT) / 10:00 AM (EST) / 7:00 AM (PST).
To access the call, please dial:
Germany: +49 (0) 6103 485 3000
Canada /USA: +1 416 640 4127
The presentation for the call, further information about the deal as
well as its recording can be accessed at
www.lionbioscience.com/netgenics |
