Bruker
Corporation today announced the signing of a purchase agreement to acquire
Centre for Tribology, Inc. (CETR) for an undisclosed amount. CETR, a
privately held corporation located in Silicon Valley in Campbell, CA, is
projected to have calendar year 2011 revenue greater than $10 million and EBITDA
greater than $2 million.
The transaction is expected to close at the end of the third quarter of 2011,
subject to customary closing conditions. After the closing, Bruker intends to
continue to operate CETR in Silicon Valley and to integrate its business
management, operations, research and development, sales and support with the Bruker Nano
Surfaces division. It is anticipated that CETR will become a separate
Tribology and Indenting business, joining the current AFM (atomic force
microscope) and SOM (stylus and optical metrology) businesses in the Bruker Nano
Surfaces division.
"CETR has been continuously and increasingly successful for nearly two
decades in nanoindenting and microindenting, and in materials and tribology
testing," said Mark R. Munch, Ph.D., President of the Bruker Nano Surfaces
division. "We are delighted to add their synergistic core competencies to our
own AFM and optical metrology expertise. CETR customers are interested in
mechanically testing the structure property relationships as they relate to
tribology and nano-mechanical properties just as Bruker Nano Surfaces division's
current customers want to use microscopy and metrology to measure topography,
and other surface properties."
"CETR has been providing customers a competitive edge with innovative
indenting and tribology testing solutions for over fifteen years," remarked Norm
V. Gitis, Ph.D., Founder, CEO and President of CETR. "We are pleased to bring
our complete materials testing product lines to Bruker, whose stellar
instrumentation reputation and worldwide sales and support structure will enable
our technology to reach new regions and markets."
CETR products can perform multitudes of operations to characterize nano-,
micro- and macro-mechanical and tribological properties under harsh
environmental conditions (high and low temperatures and humidity, vacuum, gases,
etc.), and have become the de facto standard for multiple industries and basic
research around the world. CETR instruments have been successfully utilized in
numerous academic labs for fundamental materials research and have been
responsible for important breakthroughs in studies of thin films, as well as in
numerous factories and plants for quality control of ink-jet cartridges, razor
blades, industrial oils and many other industrial, medical and consumer
products.
About CETR
CETR was founded in 1993 to offer testing and
consulting services to high-tech companies. Within a year, CETR started
developing and manufacturing its own test equipment, and now is a worldwide
leader in nano-mechanical and tribological test instrumentation, serving both
basic materials research and industrial manufacturing in a wide range of fields,
including the biomedical, petroleum, microelectronics, energy, and automotive
markets. For more information about CETR, please visit www.cetr.com.
About Bruker Corporation
Bruker Corporation is a leading global
manufacturer of scientific instruments that address the needs of a diverse array
of research and production customers in materials, chemical analysis, life
science and pharmaceutical, biotechnology and molecular diagnostics
research. For more information about Bruker Corporation, please visit www.bruker.com.