Microsoft to buy assets of Rosetta Biosoftware

SAN FRANCISCO, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Microsoft on Monday said it has agreed to buy certain assets of Rosetta Biosoftware, a provider of informatics solutions for life science research.

Rosetta Biosoftware, headquartered in Seattle in the U.S. state of Washington, is a business unit of Rosetta Inpharmatics, a wholly owned subsidiary of pharmaceutical company Merck.

Microsoft said the deal will allow it to incorporate Rosetta Biosoftware technologies into its new Amalga Life Sciences software platform, which was introduced by the software giant in April this year.

"The newly combined offering will enable customers to improve the management and analysis of genomic, biological and research data, helping to bring lifesaving drugs and therapies to market faster and accelerate the realization of personalized medicine," Peter Neupert, a corporate vice president at Microsoft, said in a statement.

The deal is expected to close at the end of June. Microsoft said it plans to hire Rosetta Biosoftware employees to help incorporate technologies into the Amalga Life Sciences platform.