Ceres, Inc.

Last updated
Ceres, Inc.
Company type Public
Nasdaq: CERE
Industry Biotechnology
Founded1996;29 years ago (1996)
Headquarters
Thousand Oaks, California
,
United States
Key people
Richard Hamilton (president and CEO)
ProductsSeeds of energy crops
Parent Land O'Lakes
Subsidiaries Ceres Sementes do Brasil
Website ceres.net

Ceres, Inc. was a biotechnology company based in Thousand Oaks, California, United States that operated from 1996 to 2016, when it was acquired by Land O'Lakes. The company was a spinoff from UCLA researchers. Its ultimate commercial products were seeds of genetically modified crops used for biofuel production. [1] [2] In addition to its operations in the United States, Ceres had a subsidiary in Brazil called Ceres Sementes do Brasil. [3]

Contents

History

The company was founded in 1996 by UCLA professor Bob Goldberg and corporate partners with an initial capital of $50 million and an off-campus laboratory site overlooking Malibu, CA. [4] In 2002, the company signed a $137 million licensing agreement with Monsanto for their technology. [5]

Richard Flavell was Chief Scientific Officer from 1998 until the 2012 public offering. [6] From its 2012 initial public offering that raised $65 million until its acquisition, it was listed on the NASDAQ exchange. [7] [1] [8] In 2012, the largest shareholders were Artal Luxembourg, Warburg Pincus, Ambergate Trust, and Oxford Bioscience, while biotechnology company Monsanto had 4.8% stake. [1] The company's president and CEO was Richard Hamilton. [9]

A second public offering in 2014 raised an additional $20 million [6] at $1 per share compared to the 2012 IPO at $13.

On June 21, 2016, Ceres was acquired by Land O'Lakes for $17.2 million. [10]

Products and research

A major early (2000) accomplishment was the full-length cDNA-sequencing of Arabidopsis thaliana in collaboration with Genset [11] with subsequent publication of the sequencies in TIGR and NCBI and submission to US PTO, and the characterization of Arabidopsis AFLP fragments in collaboration with Keygene NV. [12] In 2006, Ceres began a collaboration with the Noble Research Institute to develop switchgrass. [13] Starting in 2009, Ceres sold sweet sorghum, switchgrass and high biomass sorghum seeds. [1] [14] It tested biofuel production from switchgrass and miscanthus. [8] In 2010, Ceres started to cooperate with Novozymes to improve the enzyme cocktails for biorefinery switchgrass and sweet sorghum. [15] USAID funded Ceres' research on biotech traits and trait stacks in rice for Asia. [16]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Herndon, Andrew (2012-02-22). "Ceres Rises on First Trading Day for Biofuels Crop Company". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on June 28, 2013. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  2. ↑ Shah, Aman (2012-01-25). "Ceres Inc sees IPO priced at $21-$23/share". Reuters . Archived from the original on 2012-01-26. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  3. ↑ "Ceres to seed sorghum in Brazil". Ethanol Producer Magazine. 2010-09-23. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  4. ↑ JACOBS, PAUL (1999-12-31). "A Few Rush to Exploit New Biotech Crops". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  5. ↑ "Monsanto to invest $137 million in Ceres collaboration, stake". St. Louis Business Journal. 2002-04-03. Retrieved 2023-03-03.
  6. 1 2 "Ceres from 10-K for 2015".
  7. ↑ "Ceres Announces Fiscal Second Quarter 2012 Financial Results". 2012-04-12. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  8. 1 2 Dickerson, Marla (2012-01-25). "California biofuel firm Ceres plans public offering". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  9. ↑ "Ceres Unveils Switchgrass Seed Brand for Cellulosic Feedstock". Sustainable Business. 2008-01-05. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  10. ↑ "Land O'Lakes Acquires Ag Biotech Developer Ceres Inc". hayandforage.com. Retrieved 2016-06-22.
  11. ↑ de Vries, G.E (2000-06-01). "Ceres and Genset milestone". Trends in Plant Science. Retrieved 2024-06-22.
  12. ↑ DeFrancesco, Laura (2000-07-18). "Tour de force—near complete expression analysis of Arabidopsis genes". Bioprocess Online. Retrieved 2023-03-03.
  13. ↑ Jiang, Qingzhen; Webb, Stephen L.; Bhandari, Hem S.; Bouton, Joe H.; Saha, Malay C. (January 2019). "Ecotypic and genotypic effects on regrowth and heading date in switchgrass ( Panicum virgatum )". Plant Direct. 3 (1). doi:10.1002/pld3.111. PMC   6508767 .
  14. ↑ Ann Hinch for Farmworld Online May 7 2008 Genome firm will sell biomass seeds for ’09 growing season
  15. ↑ Zimmerman, Cindy (2010-05-20). "Novozymes and Ceres Partner on Biofuel Crops". Domestic Fuel. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  16. ↑ "Energy crop company Ceres receives additional $3.5M from USAID for trait stacks for rice". Green Car Congress. 2012-11-09. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
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