Single-molecule技术，怎么才能robust...
Helicos Seeks Approval to Sell Assets, IP to Employee to Form New Company
March 11, 2013
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Helicos BioSciences, currently in Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection, is seeking approval from bankruptcy court to sell its
assets to an employee who plans to form a new company using Helicos'
technology, the company said in a court filing last week.
The US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts Eastern Division
will hold a hearing on Helicos' motion for approval of the proposed deal on
Thursday.
According to the motion, Helicos employee Dan Jones wants to buy the company
's assets. He also is seeking a non-exclusive license from Helicos covering
its technology in order to build a new entity that will perform sequencing
services on a contract basis in support of Helicos' existing customer base "
and potentially improving [Helicos'] existing technology."
Jones, Helicos said, is a scientist and has never served as a director or
officer of the company.
Among the assets that Jones would acquire are Helicos' equipment, including
its HeliScope single-molecule sequencers, data analysis systems, and
engineering computers; all inventory and supplies including reagents; and
all customer records and engineering documentation.
Helicos would also grant Jones a sublicense to its IP, originally licensed
from Arizona Science and Technology Enterprise, related to nucleic acid
sequencing-by-synthesis "utilizing detection of optical-labeled nucleotides
… and performed without reliance on detection of optically labeled
nucleotides," the firm said.
Under the terms of the deal, Jones would make an initial payment to Helicos
of $75,000. The company would also issue a promissory note in the principal
amount of $500,000 with a non-default interest rate of 3 percent "secured by
a second priority security interest in all assets acquired" from Helicos by
Jones.
Jones would have to carry out Helicos' unfulfilled customer orders and
deferred customer obligations "whether [he] will realize any revenue
therefrom (and in most cases, [Jones] will not)," according to the filing.
Jones would have the rights to use the Helicos and Helicos BioSciences name
in connection with the new business.
Helicos said that two of the three claimants on its bankruptcy filing
asserting liens against Helicos' assets have agreed to the deal, while the
third "has expressed no objection to the [company's] request for expedited
determination or relief requested herein."
Helicos must vacate its current location in Cambridge, Mass., by the end of
the month, and "[t]he purpose of the transaction is to relieve the company
of assets and obligations that will constitute a net drain on the company's
cash flow if retained after March 31, 2013," the firm said in its court
document.
Helicos filed for Chapter 11 protection, which allows a company to
reorganize its operations, in November after its board determined "that
continued operation of the company outside of bankruptcy protection is not
possible due to its lack of cash resources and no available funding
operations."
In its bankruptcy filing, the company listed total assets of $3.5 million
and total debts of $15.5 million as of Sept. 30, 2012.
