Life Technologies traces its roots back to 1962 with the creation of Grand Island Biological Company (GIBCO) in Grand Island, New York, making serum harvested from horses raised on their land.

 

The original Life Technologies, Inc. (LTI), a subsidiary of Dexter Corp., was founded in 1983 by the merger of Bethesda Research Laboratories, Inc. (BRL) and GIBCO Corporation. Life Technologies was bought out by the smaller, cash-rich Invitrogen in 2000, who gradually discontinued the use of the name Life Technologies.

 

The new Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: LIFE) was formed November 21, 2008 with the completion of the merger of Invitrogen Corporation (NASDAQ:IVGN) and Applied Biosystems Inc. (NYSE:AB) Applied Biosystems. The company elected to resurrect the Life Technologies name for which it still held the trademark.

 

Applied Biosystems (formerly GeneCo) was founded in 1981 by Sam Eletr and Andre Marion as a biochemical and manufactured diagnostic research instrument manufacturer. Perkin Elmer acquired Applied Biosystems in 1983 and held it until 2000 when it was released as a publicly traded company. The former parent Perkin Elmer then became Applera. By 2002, Applied Biosystems reached revenues of $1.6 billion and maintained a variety of products including the SOLiD System - a next-gen DNA sequencing platform.

 

Invitrogen 

Lyle Turner, Joe Fernandez and William MacConnell (who was later bought out) founded Invitrogen in September 1987. They focused on developing products for the niche within the molecular biology research market for kits, reagents and services. They advertised in scientific journals, catalogs and everywhere they thought scientists would scan. Within three months, they sold their first kit, The Librarian, for $3,200. In 1998, Invitrogen offered more than 2,000 products. Invitrogen’s initial public offering (IPO) was made in February 1999 and raised $48.1M.