Ceres, Inc.

Ceres, Inc.
Public
(Acquisition by Land O'Lakes pending)
Traded as NASDAQ: CERE
Industry Biotechnology
Founded 1996
Headquarters Thousand Oaks, California, United States
Key people
 Richard Hamilton (President and CEO)
Products Seeds of energy crops
Subsidiaries Ceres Sementes do Brasil
Website ceres.net

Ceres, Inc. is a biotechnology company based in Thousand Oaks, California, United States. The company develops and produces seeds of genetically modified crops used for biofuels production.[1][2] In addition to the operations in the United States, it has a subsidiary in Brazil called Ceres Sementes do Brasil.[3]

History

The company was founded in 1996. Since 2012 it is listed at the NASDAQ.[1][4] As of February 2012, the largest shareholders were Artal Luxembourg, Warburg Pincus, Ambergate Trust and Oxford Bioscience, while biotechnology company Monsanto had 4.8% stake.[1] The company's president and CEO is Richard Hamilton.[5]

On June 21, 2016, Ceres was acquired by Land O'Lakes for $17.2 million.[6]

Products and research

Ceres sells sweet sorghum, switchgrass and high biomass sorghum seeds,[1] with its first sales coming for the 2009 growing season.[7] It has tested biofuels production from switchgrass and miscanthus.[4] In 2010, Ceres started to cooperate with Novozymes to improve the enzyme cocktails for biorefinery switchgrass and sweet sorghum.[8] USAID has funded Ceres' research on biotech traits and trait stacks in rice for Asia.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Herndon, Andrew (2012-02-22). "Ceres Rises on First Trading Day for Biofuels Crop Company". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  2. ↑ Shah, Aman (2012-01-25). "Ceres Inc sees IPO priced at $21-$23/share". Reuters. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  3. ↑ "Ceres to seed sorghum in Brazil". Ethanol Producer Magazine. 2010-09-23. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  4. 1 2 Dickerson, Marla (2012-01-25). "California biofuel firm Ceres plans public offering". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  5. ↑ "Ceres Unveils Switchgrass Seed Brand for Cellulosic Feedstock". Sustainable Business. 2008-01-05. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  6. ↑ "Land O'Lakes Acquires Ag Biotech Developer Ceres Inc.". hayandforage.com. Retrieved 2016-06-22.
  7. ↑ Ann Hinch for Farmworld Online May 7 2008 Genome firm will sell biomass seeds for ’09 growing season
  8. ↑ Zimmerman, Cindy (2010-05-20). "Novozymes and Ceres Partner on Biofuel Crops". Domestic Fuel. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  9. ↑ "Energy crop company Ceres receives additional $3.5M from USAID for trait stacks for rice". Green Car Congress. 2012-11-09. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
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