FTC Slams Illumina-PacBio Merger, but Illumina Not Quitting Yet

Tonight I was intending to finally get out my summary of technical notes from the Oxford Nanopore Community Meeting, but yesterday the U.S. Federal Trade Commission issued a press release that they believe the proposed acquisition of Pacific Biosciences by Illumina would be grossly anticompetitive and cannot be approved in any form.   A more detailed report is promised but hasn't surfaced yet.   Curiously, not only did this ultimately move PacBio's stock very little, but today Illumina and Pacific Biosciences filed matchingSEC documents that Illumina will continue to infuse cash into PacBio through March of next year.   Also, I should note thatsomeone left a passionate defense of regulators in the comments on a prior piece, noting that the FTC decision shows that the CMA was justified in opposing the deal and not simply acting with a parochial eye on Oxford Nanopore.Read more »
Source: Omics! Omics! - Category: Bioinformatics Authors: Source Type: blogs