Thermo Fisher Scientific said after the close of the market Friday that it is acquiring Affymetrix for approximately $1.3 billion. The firms said in a joint statement that the boards of directors of both firms have unanimously approved Thermo Fisher's offer to acquire Affymetrix for $14 per share, a 52 percent premium to Affy's closing price of $9.21 on Friday.

Last year, Affymetrix expanded its offerings in the ag-bio markets through its acquisition of Eureka Genomics for $15 million in cash. Eureka's low- and mid-plex genotyping assays use common next-generation sequencing platforms for signal readout, and enable the detection of hundreds to thousands of genetic markers for crop and animal agrigenomics testing, Affy said at the time of the deal.

"The acquisition of Affymetrix will strengthen our leadership in biosciences and create new market opportunities for us in genetic analysis," Marc Casper, president and CEO of Thermo Fisher, said in the statement. "In biosciences, the company's antibody portfolio will significantly expand our offering in the fast-growing flow cytometry market, and customers will have greater access to these products through our global scale and commercial reach. In genetic analysis, Affymetrix's technologies are highly complementary and present new opportunities for us in targeted clinical and applied markets. For shareholders, we expect the transaction to create value by generating attractive financial returns, including immediate accretion to our adjusted EPS."

Affymetrix had full-year 2014 revenues of $349 million, and analysts covering the firm had predicted sales of $357.6 million, on average, for FY 2015. The Santa Clara, California-based genetic analysis products firm has approximately 1,100 employees worldwide.

"Joining Thermo Fisher creates significant value for our customers, employees, and shareholders," Affymetrix President and CEO Frank Witney said in the statement. "We will be able to build on our strong history of close collaboration with customers in our target markets by leveraging Thermo Fisher's deep relationships, particularly in biopharma, as well as their global scale and leading presence in Asia-Pacific."