ASD bought by Spectris

ASD Inc., manufacturer of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy instrumentation for materials measurement and research, has been acquired by Spectris plc. Through the acquisition, ASD becomes Spectris’ “NIR Excellence Centre” and will be integrated with PANalytical BV, located in the Netherlands who have a range of x-ray diffraction and fluorescence instrumentation.

This is not the first NIR-related company that Spectris have bought: they already own Malvern Instruments (NIR imaging) and NDC Infrared Engineering (online NIR).

“ASD’s successful NIR solutions for the remote sensing, mining and other industrial markets augment and extend PANalytical’s offerings toward scientific and industrial customers and will add a new contiguous product line with portable, handheld, benchtop and online products,” said Jim Webster, Business Group Director at Spectris. “The acquisition of ASD will provide strong synergies in the combination of both companies’ technologies, customer support capabilities and distribution channels.”

Concurrently, Dr Alexander F.H. Goetz, co-founder of ASD retires from his position as Chief Scientist. Dr Goetz founded ASD with Dr Brian Curtiss, Chief Technology Officer, in 1990. Additionally, David Rzasa, CEO and President, and Thomas Beck, CFO, will step down from their positions with ASD and the company’s board of directors. Bob Faus, PE, previously vice president of engineering, and Michael Lands, vice president of sales and marketing, will assume executive leadership positions as vice president and general manager, NIR, and vice president, sales and marketing, NIR, respectively.

“The recent acquisition expands our potential to serve more customers and reach out to more prospects in a wide range of industries,” said Michael Lands, vice president, sales and marketing, NIR. “Our parent companies are ready to support our vision and grow our product offerings, services and programs to even higher levels of success.”