ANN ARBOR ? Becton, Dickinson and Co., which purchased HandyLab last year for $275 million, will close the Ann Arbor company’s office and consolidate the manufacture of HandyLab’s rapid detection infection device in Maryland. The fate of the company’s 50 Michigan employees remains unclear, but none will remain in Michigan, a company spokesperson said.
The Michigan Economic Development Corp. gave a $672,000 tax credit to HandyLab in August 2007 on a promise to add 56 jobs and invest $3 million over several years.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Snyder was chairman of HandyLab when the company was sold to BD, though he left the company after its sale.
HandyLab has two years left on a lease for 22,000 square feet at a facility at 5230 S. State St. The company had added 4,500 square feet of space just seven months before its sale in late 2009.
HandyLab, a University of Michigan spinout company founded in 2000, was one of Michigan’s most successful fundraisers, raising more than $46 million this decade. The company’s fourth round of fundraising in the summer of 2008 generated $19.2 million alone.
Participating in these rounds has been Ann Arbor-based Ardesta LLC (cofounded by Snyder), EDF Ventures, Arboretum Ventures, and the University of Michigan Wolverine Venture Fund, which participated in four rounds of financing in HandyLab.
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