Jun 3 2009
Shrink Technologies, Inc. ("Shrink Technologies"), a California corporation, has agreed to be acquired in a stock-for-stock transaction by Shrink Nanotechnologies, Inc. (OTCBB: AUIO). The transaction closed on May 29, 2009, and as a result, Shrink Technologies, Inc., a California corporation, is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Shrink Nanotechnologies, Inc. ("Shrink"), a Delaware corporation. The transaction purchase price was just under US $9,000,000 and called for Shrink to issue 8,888,888 Shrink common shares, 50 Series C Preferred shares and to add one new person to the Shrink Board of Directors. The closing price of Shrink's stock on the date of the acquisition was $1.01 per share. Shrink has applied for a new trading symbol with FINRA and expects to trade under a new symbol in the coming weeks.
Commenting on the acquisition, Shrink CEO Mark L. Baum stated, "We are pleased to have concluded the transaction to acquire Shrink Technologies, a company with a very promising portfolio of licensed technologies which we believe will be impactful in a number of fast growing multi-billion dollar markets. We also welcome to Shrink, a team of world class scientists and technology innovators from some of our Nation's most prestigious academic institutions. Together, we will continue the vision of Dr. Michelle Khine as we aggressively seek to commercialize devices engineered from an innovative manufacturing, prototyping and nano-technology development platform called the Shrink Chip Manufacturing Solution.
"The most impressive aspect of the technology we have purchased has been the initial testing results we have seen for our metal-enhanced fluorescence ('MEF') applications. In simple terms, our MEF technology is a marriage of our rapid prototyping methods with cutting-edge advancements in metal-fluorescence enhanced immunoassays. The mission of our MEF Solutions Group is to develop devices based on our patent-pending technologies to significantly enhance existing platforms across a broad spectrum of product categories.
"Shrink's MEF applications employ metal-based nanostructures created through Shrink's patent-pending processes in conjunction with standard fluorescence methods to radically enhance the ability of a diagnostic assay to detect interactions at a level of sensitivity which we believe is unparalleled. In essence, many of the potentially exciting interactions that are unable to be seen by today's methods can be visualized by this new MEF technology. This has broad implications in the fields of drug discovery, environmental sensing, medical diagnostics and beyond.
"One important use we believe is in the drug discovery industry. The drug discovery process often involves the screening of hundreds of thousands of compounds for highly specific interactions. Only compounds that display high specificity are further investigated for potential therapeutic benefit. With current methods, drug companies are limited by the level of sensitivity of screening assays to detect interactions, thereby excluding potentially groundbreaking drug candidates that escape detection. Shrink's MEF technology, which can be integrated into existing market-leading diagnostic systems, has the potential to identify these missed drug interactions, allowing the drug companies to explore the therapeutic benefit of these candidates.
"Shrink's MEF technology can be directed towards clinical diagnostic applications as well. Clinical diagnostic assays are at the frontline for disease diagnosis and treatment. Doctors rely on clinical lab results to detect the early onset of disease which better ensures the efficacy of proposed treatments. However, many diseases are undetectable by current diagnostic methods at onset, often times preceding symptoms and other signs. This is why the healthcare industry has placed such a heavy emphasis on screening and early detection; those patients that are diagnosed earlier more often than not do better than patients that are diagnosed at later stages. With Shrink's MEF technology coupled with next generation diagnostic assays, earlier and more specific detection is be possible. Instead of treating diseases, doctors can focus on preventing them, thereby saving billions of healthcare-related costs and increasing patient's quality of life and morbidity.
"We have only begun to touch on the uses for the technologies we have purchased. Beyond diagnostics, our team of product engineers has created prototype products for a number of applications including stem cell research and development tools and custom microfluidic chip prototyping systems. We believe the flexible 'wrinkled' substrates we make have the ability to make solar cells more efficient 'traps' for light, and our engineers are developing biodegradable plastic lattices for the creation of organ and nerve tissue.
"We believe the next chapter in the history of diagnostic technologies has begun. We live in a country that has reset its priorities and has concluded that science and research and development of new and innovative science can make a difference in the lives of our people and can be a significant part of how our country provides global leadership in the coming century. We are inspired by our opportunities and by our national priorities, and we intend to continue to research develop our technologies and products, and to use our vast and growing network of academic and industry contacts to review new products and technologies that may compliment our existing portfolio as we execute on the mission and vision of our new company."