June 20, 2006 - Chalfont St. Giles, United Kingdom and Uppsala, Sweden - GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), today announced its intention to acquire Biacore International AB (Biacore) (SSE: BCOR), a leading provider of life science tools for protein research. Pursuant to this transaction, GE Healthcare will initiate a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Biacore for SEK330 per share, payable in cash, for a total consideration of approximately SEK2.9 billion (approximately U.S.$390 million) on a fully diluted basis, net of Biacore cash and equivalents. The Biacore Board of Directors unanimously recommends the offer. The tender offer is expected to commence by 10 July 2006.

The combination of Biacore with GE Healthcare will create a broad offering of tools for protein research, an area of increasing importance in biomedical research and the discovery of new medicines.

GE Healthcare and Biacore have a shared vision on the importance of life sciences research to future developments in improving global healthcare said Joe Hogan, President and CEO of GE Healthcare. Life sciences is a key area of growth for GE Healthcare, and Biacore is highly complementary and synergistic with our existing protein sciences business. We are extremely excited about Biacores prospects and believe our joint offerings will create added value for our customers in biomedical and drug discovery research. Expanding on GE Healthcares expertise in this area supports our objective of helping to diagnose and treat disease earlier.

Biacore is a global leader in the field of protein interaction analysis, which gives scientists critical insights into the role of proteins in disease as well as their influence on the suitability of potential drug candidates. I believe that by combining Biacore's technology, products and brand with GE Healthcares broad product offering, we will be able to bring significantly enhanced solutions to the life science community, where we have a number of common customers said Erik Walldn, CEO and President of Biacore As a result of today's transaction, Biacore will be able to benefit from the additional technical and commercial resources of GE Healthcare to accelerate its growth and further expand our opportunities in protein research.

Biacore employs approximately 300 people worldwide, and operates R&D and manufacturing facilities in Uppsala, Sweden, where GE Healthcares Life Sciences business is also headquartered. Upon completion of the tender offer, GE Healthcare intends to combine the expertise of Biacore with that of GE Healthcare Life Sciences, to create a world leading center of excellence in Protein Science in Uppsala.

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