Madison-based stem cell company Cellular Dynamics InternationalInc. is being acquired by Tokyo-based Fujifilm Holdings Corp., the companies announced in a news release Monday.

The deal was described as "an all-cash tender offer to be followed by a second step merger," with Fujifilm buying all shares of CDI stock for $16.50 per share, valuing the deal at about $307 million.

The offer is a premium of 108 percent to to CDI's closing stock price on Friday.

When the deal is completed, CDI will continue to run its operations in Madison and Novato, California as a consolidated subsidiary of Fujifilm. CDI had 155 employees at the end of 2014.

The deal, which is expected to close during the second quarter, has been approved by the boards of both companies.

"CDI has become a leader in the development and manufacture of fully functioning human cells in industrial quantities to precise specifications,"Robert J. Palay, Chairman and CEO of CDI, said in the release. "CDI and Fujifilm share a common strategic vision for achieving leadership in the field of regenerative medicine. The combination of CDI's technology with Fujifilm's technologies, know-how, and resources brings us ever closer to realizing the promise of discovering better, safer medicines and developing new cell therapies based on iPSCs."

CDI was founded in 2004 and listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange in July 2013. The company had global revenues of $16.7 million in the year ended Dec. 31, 2014.

Fujifilm has successfully transformed its business structure for growth by expanding from traditional photographic film to other priority business fields. Positioning the healthcare business as one of its key growth areas, Fujifilm is seeking to cover "prevention, diagnosis, and treatment" comprehensively.

CDI's technology platform enables the production of high-quality fully functioning human cells, including induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), on an industrial scale. Customers use CDI's products, among other purposes, for drug discovery and screening, to test the safety and efficacy of their small molecule and biological drug candidates, for stem cell banking, and in the research and development of cellular therapeutics. CDI's proprietary iCell product catalogue encompasses 12 different iPSC based cell types, including iCell Cardomyocytes, iCell Hepatocytes, and iCell Neurons. During 2014 CDI sold to 18 of 20 top biopharmaceutical companies.

Tapping into technologies and know-how accumulated as a result of leading the field of photographic films, Fujifilm has developed highly-biocompatible recombinant peptides6 that can be shaped into a variety of forms for use as a cellular scaffold7 in regenerative medicine8 in conjunction with CDI's products. Fujifilm has been strengthening its presence in the regenerative medicine field over several years, including by acquiring a majority of shares of Japan Tissue Engineering Co., Ltd. (J-TEC) in December 2014.

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Stem cell firm Cellular Dynamics being acquired by Japanese company for $307 million