Source Scientific Picks Ventura Firm as New Merger Partner

Source Scientific Inc., a small biomedical company, announced Monday that it’s switching merger partners.

The maker of diagnostic instruments said its new prospective buyer is Biopool International Inc., a Ventura maker of medical test kits. The company also said it called off plans announced last summer to merge with XCEL Corp. of Ontario, Calif.

Biopool, which aims to acquire Scientific Source early next year, is offering to issue 3 million shares in exchange for Scientific Source shares in a deal valued at about $6 million. Assuming shareholders approve the terms, Biopool will become Source Scientific’s fourth corporate parent in eight years.

Founded 20 years ago, Garden Grove-based Source Scientific became a unit of Chicago-based Quixote Corp. in 1988. Three years later, Quixote sold the unit to a customer, MicroProbe Corp., in Bothell, Wash. Last year, MicroProbe sold it to a competitor, Alton Group, in Irvine.

Alton Group, adopting the unit’s name, last year changed its corporate name to Source Scientific. The company lost $400,000 on revenue of $5 million for the year ended June 30, compared with losses of $2 million on the same amount of sales in the preceding year, an official said.

Michael D. Bick, Biopool’s chairman and chief executive, said Source Scientific hasn’t been able to grow in the past because it has been “at the mercy” of its corporate owners. Bick said he believes Source Scientific would prosper as part of Biopool because it would be allowed to develop its own markets.