Biopool International Stockholders Accept Merger With Xtrana

Stockholders of Biopool International Inc. in Ventura approved the company’s merger with Xtrana Inc. of Denver.

The company also announced that Michael D. Bick, Douglas L. Ayer, N. Price Paschall and James H. Chamberlain were reelected to the board of directors for the coming year.

With the close of the merger, John H. Wheeler, chief executive of Xtrana, became chief executive of the new company. Bick, who has served as Biopool’s chief executive since 1992, will continue as chairman of the board.

Pursuant to the merger agreement, Biopool issued 9.3 million shares of common stock in exchange for all the issued and outstanding shares of Xtrana common and preferred stock. Biopool and Xtrana stockholders now each hold about 50% of the stock of the surviving corporation. All shares of Xtrana stock have been canceled.

The merger agreement expanded the board of directors to seven members, and Wheeler, John C. Gerdes and Stephen K. Schultheis have been appointed to fill those spots.

Bick called the new company’s opportunities compelling and added that “future growth will be based on developing new analytical methods for use in human diagnostics, tools for widespread genome discovery companies and products for a multitude of microbial tests for environmental and food processing use.”