Benchmarking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Benchmarking - Essay Example There years later, the Company went public, with a valuation of $300 million and commenced sales of the GeneChip system. At the time of the public offering, Affymatrix’s R&D expenses were $12.4 million but by the year 2000, its expenses had risen to $57.4 million and its product sales were $173 million (www.atp.nist.gov). Sources of funding for Affymetrix R&D work have been primarily through licenses and patents and collaborative partnerships with several firms to test out its products. Companies with whom Affymetrix worked in the initial stages include Hewlett Packard, Genetics Institute, Incyte, Glaxo and Perlegen. By 2000, Affymetrix had 105 patents with 10% of the company income contributed by license and patent fees (www.atop.nist.gov). Additional sources of funds are Government and research grants, which are a part of the Company strategy to maintain an academic environment without sacrificing entrepreneurship. This strategy also helped to attract a pool of talented researchers who were thus able to develop marketable products of economic value for the Company. Net income reported by the Company for the third quarter of 2005 was $8.7million as compared to $15.4 million the same time last quarter.(www.corporate-ir.net). But in contrast, other biotech companies all reported earnings higher than expected for the third quarter of 2005, with the Burill Biotech Select index rising on a steady basis and most of the recent IPO graduates are doing quite well.(www.altassets.com). It is only Affumetrix that has reported a drop of 16% in share prices from $0.24 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2004 to $0.13 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2005. As compared to the third quarter of 2004 when operating costs were $65.1 million and revenues were $2.7 million, the third quarter of 2005 showed an increase in