PacBio, once slated to be acquired by Illumina, is taking on the DNA giant

Pa­cif­ic Bio­sciences, a com­pa­ny that Il­lu­mi­na once tried to buy, is com­ing for its for­mer suit­or.

More than three years ago, the com­pa­nies called off their $1.2 bil­lion merg­er af­ter an­titrust op­po­si­tion. Back then, Pa­cif­ic Bio­sciences, known as PacBio, was in a fi­nan­cial­ly pre­car­i­ous po­si­tion but is now pos­ing a com­pet­i­tive threat to Il­lu­mi­na.

PacBio is cap­i­tal­iz­ing on the de­mand for read­ing longer pieces of DNA, while ex­pand­ing in­to a mar­ket dom­i­nat­ed by Il­lu­mi­na. At the same time, Il­lu­mi­na finds it­self with slow­ing sales, an in­ter­im CEO and an­oth­er ac­qui­si­tion that could be tor­pe­doed be­cause of an­titrust reg­u­la­tors.

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