Bruker Wins NanoString Auction

NanoString declaring bankruptcy on the eve of 2024's edition of AGBT was a shock to many at the meeting and then there was confusion: would one of the sponsors have a dark booth? The aggressive 10X Genomics legal strategy that forced the bankruptcy raised a degree of polite ire. But NanoString marketing carried on and CSO Joe Beecham delivered a fiery speech saying "we're not going anywhere". Then an investment firm, Patient Square Capital, appeared to be the front runner for acquiring the assets, with speculation they would combine NanoString with their other spatial omics portfolio company, Resolve Biosciences.  But last week, as the genomics world was still processing PacBio's turmoil, news broke that Bruker had significantly outbid Patient Square - $392.6M vs $220M.  So Bruker takes NanoString home - and I gives me an entree to float an ontology of spatial technologies I've been fermenting, as Bruker will now have instruments in the four major spatial approaches.  And 10X now has a more formidable opponent in the ongoing patent wars.