Lusix to be Sold for Just $2.5m
October 01, 24
(IDEX Online) - Lusix, the lab grown company founded by Israeli billionaire Benny Landa, is to be sold to a Japanese investor for just $2.5m.
Lusix developed cutting edge technology and attracted more than $152m of investment over eight years, including $60m from Landa (the "father of commercial digital printing" who sold his company Indigo to HP for $830m).
But it could not compete with cheap labor and government subsidies in India. It said the market was flooded and the wholesale price of rough lab growns had plunged by more than 90 per cent in the last two years.
Lusix will be sold, pending court approval, to Japanese investor Naoji Fujimori, owner of EDP, which produces the seeds for lab-grown production. according to the business news website Ctech.
The company, which had amassed debts of around $28m, earlier asked a court in Israel for a stay of proceedings to avoid insolvency.
It dismissed 60 employees, leaving just 20. They will be kept on by the new owners.