Fujifilm Holdings goes big into stem cell manufacturing with $307 million Cellular Dynamics offer

Japan's Fujifilm Holdings will pay $307 million to buy all outstanding shares of NASDAQ-listed Cellular Dynamics International ($ICEL) in a deal with will further expand its reach into regenerative medicine research.

Fujifilm offered $16.50 a share, a premium of 108% to Cellular Dynamic's closing price on March 27.

Upon completion of the transaction, CDI will continue to run its operations in Madison, WI, and Novato, CA, as a consolidated subsidiary of Fujifilm, the companies said in a press release.

CDI was founded in 2004 and listed on NASDAQ in July 2013. The company had global revenues of $16.7 million last year and had 155 employees as of Dec. 31, 2014.

CDI's technology platform enables the production of high-quality fully functioning human cells, including induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), on an industrial scale, enabling Fujifilm to gain entry into the area of iPS cell-based drug discovery support services.

In August last year, Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies added a 2000-L single-use bioreactor at its plants in Research Triangle Park, NC, in the U.S. and Billingham in the U.K. to expand its cell culture manufacturing. Fujifilm has aggressively expanded into life science with a focus on medical devices and drug-related businesses in the past decade. In 2008, it bought Toyama Chemical, which has developed Avigan now used to treat patients with Ebola.

Last year in November, the company announced plans to spend as much as $4 billion on M&A deals over the next three years to transition faster into healthcare operations.

- here's the press release