Done deal, possibly... we'll see if the poison pill can get overturned somehow. But the real problem is let's say Roche gets ILMN. Then what? Hopefully, it's buying something more than the existing product lines/market position.

I don't know how Ventana is really working out, but Genentech didn't work quite as well as people had thought, there was a good amount of brain drain out of south san francisco afterwards.

I like the thought behind the purchase, personalized medicine, but I question the choice of targets. Again, may be Roche is just covering its bets by taking a stake in the fluorescence based techniques, but there are cheaper options than ILMN, and it's not as if Roche doesn't already have a presence in the market.

This rumor has been around since Illumina's stock price took the hit last last year.

The fact that it didn't officially link is a credit to both sides (For those of you young'ins out there, the Roche Boehringer deal also slipped through the BioFind radar, as the "Mill's founder Martin Leach...yes the same Martin Leach who now is the CIO at the Broad Institue)

This is a done deal Huber has already decreed, just like Ventena, it will be done.

This may open up pandora's box to acqusition of other companies like ILMN. The question is who will be next to be acquired, PKI, A, Thermo ? This should be interesting !!!! Let's see how this plays out..

Theme of this thread has a good point: how was this confirmed rumor missed? Wake up, everyone, and be more diligent about calling things before they're officially announced!

The more interesting question is why isn't Roche just covering its basis by buying up Oxford Nanopore as well as other smaller startups that are using semiconductorish (yeah, I know this is bad grammar) techniques. I recall they are already working with IBM on sequencing using non-fluorescence based techniques. So, it'll be really interesting to see what exactly they are trying to get out of ILMN.

ILMN is the market leader at the moment, but their tech is based on a very expensive instrument that is at least somewhat likely to be replaced in the coming decade with a different technique. One possibility is that they are doing it to get into a service oriented model, like GNOM. But why buy the older tech, unless they had a peak of what's under the skirt, and may be ILMN has something in the works that is a much cheaper next gen machine, although the rate they're hiring optics guys recently seem to indicate a continued focus on fluorescence techniques.

"Should I start sending out resumes"
Yes. But hold on to your stock until after the deal closes.

That's a good question : there is still some nice persons working in Madison and I'm afraid for them. When you start to build a business and you see it collapsed by being purchased by a big company, this hurts!

What does this mean for Nimblegen?

Even when the "content" was to ridicule the presumed stupidity of something that was an obvious sarcasm to begin with?

You know who the real asswhipe is when grammar wins over content.

ILMN does not have commercialization rights for the strand sequencing technology from Oxford Nanopore. They only have rights for the exonuclease technology, which by all accounts seems to have stopped development in favor of strand sequencing.

Yes, it's a bitch session. This is basically the 4chan of the Biotech world.

JF won't let it go for nearly that cheap.

Who fucking cares, I will, like many stock holders... 100% CASH IN brother !

They are, in essence buying the dominant market share and banking on Oxford Nanopore...

"What will happen with 454?"

454 has been a dead duck for a long time now. Prime example of what a big company can do to innovation.

Roche must be nuts, are they buying ILMN for the sequencing business? Or is it may be their PCR business need another refresher, and the eco RT-PCR system is the savior.

Don't they realize that ILMN's fluorescence based technology is essentially like yesterday's news. I've heard that the Hi-seq and Genome analyzer have taken a nose dive lately, and ILMN has cut way back on inventory of parts for those. Obviously there must be something else Roche is trying to buy here.

What will happen with 454?

okay serious question: to what extent did genentech get dismantled after they got taken over? Should I start sending out resumes?

JF won't let it go for nearly that cheap.