The story
Founded by Merck KGaA in 1954.1
History
Founding
In the early 1950s, Lovell Corporation won a contract from the U.S. Army Chemical Engineers to develop and manufacture membrane filtering devices used to separate the molecular components of fluid samples. When the membranes were declassified in 1953 and offered for commercial use, Jack Bush, son of Vannevar Bush and a Lovell employee, bought the company's technology for $200,000 and established the Millipore Filter Company. Bush coined the word millipore to refer to the numerous tiny openings in the microporous membrane product. The term "millipore", originally a trademark, has since come into generic use, referring to any of several filters, made from cellulose acetate membranes, capable of removing very small particles. Later the company changed its name to Millipore Corporation to reflect its growing range of products. In 2010, Merck KGaA the world's oldest chemical and pharmaceutical company, acquired Millipore Corporation to form EMD Millipore.
Filters
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. Filters consisted of nitrocellulose or polycarbonate membrane nucleopore filters ranging from pore size of 0.2 μm (micrometer) to 20 μm. Modern filters are polyvinylidene fluoride and/or polypropylene based.
Growth
By 1970, Millipore had established subsidiaries in seven countries. The company opened manufacturing plants in Jaffrey, New Hampshire; Molsheim, France; County Cork, Ireland; and other locations. Millipore's 2006 acquisition of Serologicals Corporation provided entry to high-growth markets for drug discovery products and services, antibodies, cell biology reagents, and stem cell research. As of the late 2000s, Millipore was the only company providing both upstream cell culture and downstream separations offerings for biopharmaceutical production.
Timeline
1950s
1954: Jack Bush purchases the rights to a new membrane-production process developed by Lovell Chemical Company. Millipore Filter Corporation is incorporated and Bush becomes president, and later chairman
1955: Millipore receives its first patent, for microporous nylon film invented by Stanley Lovell and Jack Bush
1960s
1964: opens first subsidiary, in France
1967: introduces the Super-Q water purification system
1967: establishes German subsidiary
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1968: establishes Japanese subsidiary
1968: introduces Pellicon cassette product, for purifying biotherapeutics
1970s
1971: introduces the original Millex syringe filter—the first disposable syringe filter
1972: opens subsidiary in Spain
1972: opens a manufacturing plant in Jaffrey, New Hampshire.
1973: starts manufacturing in Molsheim, France
1973: introduces the Milli-Q water purification system, the first lab-scale ultrapure water system
1978: reaches $100 million revenue
1978: opens manufacturing plant in Danvers, Massachusetts
1979: acquires Waters Associates Inc., a producer of chromatographic media and High-performance liquid chromatography instrumentation
1980s
1980: introduces low-protein binding Durapore polyvinylidene fluoride membrane
1987: listed on the New York Stock Exchange
1987: achieves $500 million revenue
1988: opens membrane manufacturing plant in County Cork, Ireland
1990s
1994: divests its Waters Chromatography Division to focus on its membrane business
1996: acquires Amicon separation sciences business from W. R. Grace and Company
1997: acquires Tylan General, expanding its gas purification offerings for the microelectronics industry
1999: acquires Bioprocessing Limited, a developer and manufacturer of chromatography
2000s
2001: spins off its Microelectronics Division (30% of its revenue), that becomes Mykrolis, which will merge with Entegris in 2005
2002: opens Biopharmaceutical Technology Center in Billerica, Massachusetts
2005: acquires MicroSafe, a European contract testing laboratory
2005: acquires NovAseptic, supplier of aseptically designed components for biotech and pharmaceutical production
2005: forms alliance with Gen-Probe to develop, manufacture and commercialize products for rapid microbiological and virus monitoring
2006: acquires Newport Bio Systems, a maker of process containers and systems used in biopharmaceutical production
2006: acquires Serologicals Corporation (including the companies Chemicon, Upstate, Linco, and Celliance), expanding its drug discovery and development footprint
2006: opens a new Research and Development Center in Bedford, Massachusetts
2007: launches its new brand
2008: expands drug discovery and development facility in St. Charles, Missouri
2008: opens membrane casting manufacturing facility in Carrigtwohill, County Cork, Ireland
2009: acquires Guava Technologies, a provider of bench top cell analysis systems
2009: opens Biomanufacturing Sciences and Training Center in Singapore
2009: acquires BioAnaLab, a European-based firm specializing in the analysis of biologic drugs and vaccines
2010: Merck KGaA acquires Millipore, which will be part of the EMD Group
2015: Merck completes $17 billion acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich, combining EMD Millipore and Sigma-Aldrich to create life science company MilliporeSigma
Financial history
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. In 1987 Millipore Corporation moved from the NASDAQ exchange to the New York Stock Exchange, where it traded under the ticker symbol MIL. Millipore Corporation was on the S&P 500 list of the largest publicly traded companies in the United States until it was acquired by Merck kGaA in 2010. The deal was valued at approximately EUR 5.3 billion (US$7.2 billion). Merck KGaA is not associated with Merck & Co., although the two companies stem from the same parent company.
From Wikipedia’s article on Merck Millipore, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4