Waters Corporation Purchases Wyatt Technology in Billion-Dollar Deal

Waters Corporation (Milford, Massachusetts, USA) has entered an agreement to acquire Wyatt Technology (Santa Barbara, California, USA), a company known for light scattering and field-flow fractionation (FFF), for $1.36 billion in cash. The deal is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2023.

With the acquisition, Waters seeks to expand its offerings in biopharmaceutical development, particularly for newer modalities like cell and gene therapies. Approximately 80% of Wyatt’s revenue derives from tools for the analysis of large molecules. Wyatt scientists first commercialized online multi-angle laser light scattering instruments more than 40 years ago. Over the years, the company has added complementary technologies, such as well-plate-based dynamic light scattering and FFF for separating nanoparticles in solution. These techniques are used across biopharmaceutical discovery, product development, manufacturing, and quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) to determine the critical quality attributes of novel therapeutics such as cell and gene therapies, vaccines, and proteins, as well as synthetic polymers and nanoparticles.

Waters estimates the market for bioanalytical characterization for new modalities, including cell and gene therapies, at $1.8 billion, with a projected annual growth of 10–12%.

Udit Batra, the president and CEO of Waters, noted that the two companies have similar goals. “We share a common mission to harness our technology and deep scientific expertise to increase the availability and affordability of life-changing therapies,” he said in a statement. “We look forward to welcoming the Wyatt team to the Waters family.”

Wyatt chairman and founder Philip Wyatt agrees. “For decades, we have seen first-hand how closely Waters’s and Wyatt’s scientific heritage, ethos, and values have been aligned,” he said in a statement. “Becoming an integral part of Waters is a natural way for us to expand our business dramatically.”

Wyatt is a privately held family company with 2022 revenues of approximately $110 million, and a global workforce of more than 200. Waters was founded in 1958, and has more than 8200 employees worldwide, with operations in more than 35 countries, including 14 manufacturing facilities.