Freshfields advised Standard BioTools Inc. (NASDAQ: LAB) in its strategic sale of SomaLogic to Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) for an upfront payment of $350 million in cash at closing and up to $75 million in cash in near-term milestone payments, for aggregate cash consideration of up to $425 million, plus specified sales royalties on SOMAmer-based next-generation sequencing (NGS) library preparation kits. Standard BioTools will retain certain Single SOMAmer reagent commercialization rights. The transaction significantly simplifies the operating structure of Standard BioTools and enables the achievement of adjusted EBITDA break-even.

The Freshfields deal team was led by partners Damien Zoubek and Jenny Hochenberg and included senior associate Abigail Hathaway and associates Elen Shlyakhanova, Evan Yoo, Maria Koroleva and Eric Mason. Partner Vinita Kailasanath and associate Shannon O’Hara advised on life sciences matters; partners Meghan Rissmiller, Justin Stewart-Teitelbaum and Jenny Leahy, senior associates Vadim Egoul and Kirsty Brown and associates Esther Olusanya, Toyosi Taiwo and Claire Wolter advised on antitrust matters; partner Mena Kaplan, counsel Marissa Yu, senior associate Daniel Spencer and associates Iris Amschl and Elena Confino-Pinzon advised on intellectual property matters; partner Christine Lyon and senior associate Christine Chong advised on data privacy matters; counsel Jeremiah Nelson and associate Kate Koudouna advised on real estate matters; partners Nicole Foster and Sarah Ghulamhussain and associate Lina Zhu advised on employee benefits and compensation matters and partners Steven Matays and Joe Soltis and Courtney Canning advised on tax matters.