Full Press Release Details
Peer M. Schatz Noonan Russo Presence
Chief Financial Officer Veronica Sellar
QIAGEN N.V. +44 (0)20 7726 4452
+49 2103 2911 702 Mary Claire Duch
e-mail: p.schatz@de.QIAGEN.com +1 212 845 4278
----------------------
Manager Investor Relations
e-mail: s.maehler@de.QIAGEN.com
-----------------------
QIAGEN appoints Ernst & Young LLP as Independent Public Accountants
Venlo, The Netherlands, July 01, 2002 - QIAGEN N.V. (Nasdaq: QGENF, Neuer
Markt: QIA) today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Ernst &
Young LLP as QIAGEN's independent auditors, replacing Arthur Andersen LLP,
effective June 26, 2002.
QIAGEN's decision to hire Ernst & Young LLP as the Company's independent
auditors comes after a thorough evaluation of major accounting firms conducted
by QIAGEN's Supervisory Board of Directors, its Audit Committee, and its
management team. QIAGEN's Supervisory Board and Management Board were authorized
to make this appointment by QIAGEN's shareholders at the Company's Annual
General Meeting held on June 14, 2002.
QIAGEN's decision to change its auditors was not the result of any disagreement
between the Company and Arthur Andersen on any matter of accounting principles
or practices, financial statement disclosure, or auditing scope or procedure.
"In light of the difficulties that Arthur Andersen currently faces, our
Supervisory Board and we believed it is in the best interest of QIAGEN and its
shareholders to select a new firm to serve as QIAGEN's independent auditors,"
said Peer M. Schatz, Managing Director and, Chief Financial Officer of QIAGEN
NV. "Our Supervisory Board, our Audit Committee and Management conducted a
thorough search after which our Supervisory Board selected Ernst & Young for
this role. Their outstanding reputation speaks for itself, and we look forward
to working with them. As we make this change, we would like to thank Arthur
Andersen for their many years of professional service and contributions to
QIAGEN N.V., a Netherlands holding company with subsidiaries in Germany, the
United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, Italy, Norway,
Austria, Australia and Canada, believes it is the world's leading provider of
innovative enabling technologies and products for the separation, purification
and handling of nucleic acids. The Company has developed a comprehensive
portfolio of more than 320 proprietary, consumable products for nucleic acid
separation, purification and handling, nucleic acid amplification, as well as
automated instrumentation, synthetic nucleic acid products and related services.
QIAGEN's products are sold in more than 42 countries throughout the world to
academic research markets and to leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology
companies. In addition, the Company is positioning its products for sale into
developing commercial markets, including DNA sequencing and genomics, nucleic
acid-based molecular diagnostics, and genetic vaccination and gene therapy.
QIAGEN employs approximately 1,600 people worldwide. Further information on
QIAGEN can be found at www.qiagen.com.
Certain of the statements contained in this news release may be considered
forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S.
Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. To the extent that any of the statements
contained herein relating to QIAGEN's products and markets and operating results
are forward-looking, such statements are based on current expectations that
involve a number of uncertainties and risks. Such uncertainties and risks
include, but are not limited to, risks associated with management of growth and
international operations (including the effects of currency fluctuations and
risks of dependency on logistics), variability of operating results, the
commercial development of the DNA sequencing, genomics and synthetic nucleic
acid-related markets, nucleic acid-based molecular diagnostics market, and
genetic vaccination and gene therapy markets, competition, rapid or unexpected
changes in technologies, fluctuations in demand for QIAGEN's, products
(including seasonal fluctuations), difficulties in successfully adapting
QIAGEN's products to integrated solutions and producing such products, the
ability of QIAGEN to identify and develop new products and to differentiate its
products from competitors, and the integration of acquisitions of technologies
and businesses. For further information, refer to the discussion in reports that
QIAGEN has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).