Nichols Completes Corning Merger

Nichols Institute on Thursday completed its merger with glass and housewares maker Corning Inc. in a transaction valued at about $325 million.

Corning also assumed about $100 million of Nichols’ debt.

Nichols, based in San Juan Capistrano, will be combined with Corning Life Sciences. The new unit, which will be called Corning Nichols Institute, will include Nichols’ diagnostic unit and will focus on esoteric testing.

Nichols’ remaining regional laboratory sites will be consolidated with Corning’s clinical laboratories, which are based in Teterboro, N.J.

Corning, which began offering laboratory-testing services in 1982, now operates 25 major clinical testing sites in the United States. The company’s combined laboratory services revenue for 1993 was $1.3 billion--more than 30% of its $4 billion in total revenue.