Jump to content

Ceres, Inc.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Where are the refs? (talk | contribs) at 15:16, 3 July 2018 (nice article - but biofuels is plural, which is not how its used here). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Ceres, Inc.
Company typePublic
(Acquisition by Land O'Lakes pending)
NasdaqCERE
IndustryBiotechnology
Founded1996
Headquarters,
United States
Key people
Richard Hamilton (President and CEO)
ProductsSeeds of energy crops
SubsidiariesCeres Sementes do Brasil
Websiteceres.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 biofuel production.[1][2] In addition its operations in the United States, Ceres 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 biofuel 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. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b 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.