Continuing the fine tradition of innovation by acquisition characteristic of many large tech companies, Roche just bought NimbleGen for $272.5 million.

Here are some tidbits from the article:

"This acquisition represents a further milestone in our strategy to strengthen our position as a major player and complete solution provider in the genomics research market," Severin Schwan, the head of Roche Diagnostics, said in a statement.

Roche said the global market for microarray systems was worth about $600 million and grew by 10 percent in 2006.

...NimbleGen's revenues have been growing strongly, from $4.5 million in 2004, to $9.5 million in 2005 and $13.5 million in 2006, but it has accumulated a total loss of $44.5 million as of the end of 2006, including losses of $8.3 million in 2004, $5.2 million in 2005 and $6.8 million in 2006, according to its IPO filing.