PE Corporation Divests Equity Interest in Tecan

PE Corp. announced today that it has divested its equity interest in Tecan, AG, Hombrechtikon, Switzerland, through a public offering in Switzerland and private sales outside of Switzerland. Net proceeds from the divestiture were $54.1 million. PE announced last March that it was considering various options to dispose of its stake in Tecan. The two companies intend to continue their existing collaboration in developing automated systems for combinatorial chemistry and high throughput discovery systems.

PE Corp. currently comprises two operating groups. PE Biosystems Group, with sales of $940 million during fiscal 1998, develops and markets instrument-based systems, reagents, software, and contract-related services to the life science industry and research community. Celera Genomics Group, a newly formed business unit, intends to become the definitive source of genomic and related medical information.