Gen-Probe Launches Cash Tender Offer to Acquire Belgian Molecular Diagnostics Company In...( - Acquisition Expected to Accelerat...)

- Acquisition Expected to Accelerate Gen-Probe's Commercial Expansion in Fast-Growing European Market; Add Complementary Products, Technologies and

Markers - - Combined Entity Anticipated to be World's Largest Standalone Molecular Diagnostics Company, Providing Broad Range of Innovative Products to Meet

Diverse Customer Needs Around the World -

SAN DIEGO, June 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Gen-Probe Incorporated (Nasdaq: GPRO), a pioneer and leader in nucleic acid diagnostics for human disease, announced today that it has launched a conditional tender offer to acquire 100% of the outstanding shares, warrants and convertible bonds of Innogenetics, a Belgian molecular diagnostics company, for approximately EUR 215 million ($334 million) in cash. Innogenetics shareholders will receive EUR 6.10 per share in cash, or approximately EUR 188 million ($292 million).

In this press release, EUR amounts are converted into dollars at a current exchange rate of 1 EUR / $1.554.

The combined entity is expected to be the largest standalone molecular diagnostics company in the world, with pro forma 2008 sales in excess of $500 million. The combined company would offer a broad range of nucleic acid and immunoassay tests to identify bacterial and viral infectious diseases, genetic and neurological disorders, transplant compatibility, and cancer. These tube- and strip-based products could be sold to a diverse group of small, medium and large customers around the world.

"We believe our proposed acquisition of Innogenetics would provide strategically valuable marketing and sales, distribution and manufacturing capabilities to accelerate commercialization of Gen-Probe products in t
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