Millipore Corporation

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Millipore Corporation (NYSE: MIL) founded in 1954, listed among the S&P 500 since the early 1990s, is an international biosciences company, known widely for its micrometer pore-size filters and tests. Millipore is organized into the Bioprocess division which makes biologics, and the Bioscience division which makes products for customer laboratories.

Contents 1 History 2 In fiction 3 References 4 External links

[edit] History

By 1959, Millipore made porous membrane filters of cellulose esters or other materials which resembled paper in sheet form, and were brittle when dry but friable when wet.^[1]

Millipore's cellulose ester filters were used widely in early experiments to regenerate transected nerves in the peripheral nervous system, especially in experiments of sciatic nerve transection in rodents.^[1] Today, the Millipore filters consist of nitrocellulose or polycarbonate membrane nucleopore filters ranging from pore size of 0.2 μm (micrometer) up to 20 µm. The smallest of these are sometimes also measured in pore width of 200 nm (nanometer). And some specialty applications are even measured in the picometer range (pm) of pore-size.

Millipore Corporation had been publicly-traded on the OTC, or NASDAQ, exchange where it had paid a cash dividend to shareholders every year since 1966.^[2]

In 1969, Waters Corporation founder James Logan Waters asked Dimitri D'Arbeloff, then president of Millipore Corporation, to join Waters Corporation's board of directors in order to help steer the Waters company back to profitability. Millipore's venture capital subsidiary then also made a US$600,000 equity investment in Waters Corp.

Millipore also developed the Millipore chamber, or more formally known as the Millipore Diffusion chamber, a round-shaped chamber widely used for in-vivo research, sealed at each end with a cell-impenetrable cellulose filter, which permits the growth of transplanted cells or tissue, while allowing nutrients through.

Through the long bear market of the 1970s, Millipore's stock rose over fourfold to its peak in 1985. Earnings were rapidly growing through the early 1980s, and had nearly tripled by then to over US$30 million.^[2]

In 1986, the stock split two-for-one, and in 1987 it again doubled from its 1985 peak, as the P/E ratio continued to expand into the mid 20s range. By year end 1987 earnings had grown to nearly US$45 million. Also in 1987 Millipore Corporation moved from the NASDAQ exchange to the New York Stock Exchange, where it traded under the new ticker symbol MIL.^[2]

Coming out of the 1990-1991 recession, Millipore Corporations's earning suffered between 1992 and 1993, dropping again to as low as US$30 million that second year. But by 1995, they had more than recovered, nearly tripling from that low to almost US$85 million. However, the company had accumulated US$105 million in long-term debt by then as well.^[2]

By the mid 1990s Millpore Corporation had been added to the S&P 500 list of the biggest publicly-traded companies in the United States. In 1995 the stock split again two-for-one, and by early 1996 it had doubled again in price from the 1987 peak.^[2]

In late October, 2005, Millipore acquired NovAseptic for US$91 million, a Swedish company specialising in aseptic processing equipment for making pharmaceutical and biologic drugs. Earlier in the week it had bought MicroSafe for US$9.3 million, a Netherlands microbiological testing company.^[3]

In 2005, Millipore posted revenues of US$991 million.^[4] As of 2007, it had 5,800 employees,^[4] and offices and subsidiaries in 32 countries.^[5]

[edit] In fiction

In the novel Jurassic Park, the material used to make synthetic dinosaur eggshells was called "millipore".

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Millipore Corporation web site