At Celera, the Swagger is Gone
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
Virtually nothing about Applera's Celera Genomics Group looks the same as it did six months ago. Gone are the academic struttings of former president Craig Venter and the venture culture that permeated the organization during the race to finish the rough draft of the human genome sequence. In its place is a lower-profile management team focused on acquiring the tools needed for long-term drug development. Celera's founding business, predicated on the sale of genomic information and tools for its analysis for which it raised a billion dollars from investors, has moved to Applera sister company Applied Biosystems and is now merely a residual income source: in effect, ABI can now use genomic information like a piece of capital equipment in a reagent rental business model: the economics of its sale, or lease, to customers is driven by the opportunity to sell ABI's other products.