Life Technologies Corporation was a biotech company founded in November 2008 through a US $6.7 billion merger of Invitrogen Corporation and Applied Biosystems Inc. The joint sales of the combined companies were about $3.5 billion; they had about 9,500 employees and owned more than 3,600 licenses and patents.[1]
Company name
The name "Life Technologies" was an old name from the history of Invitrogen. GIBCO (Grand Island Biological Company) had been founded around 1960 in New York; in 1983 GIBCO merged with a reagent company called Bethesda Research Laboratories (BRL) and the merged company was named Life Technologies. In 2000, Invitrogen acquired Life Technologies and discontinued that name. When Invitrogen and Applied Biosystems merged, the companies revived the name.[2]
The use of the "Life Technologies" brand name is disputed. Life Technologies (India) Private Limited, a company founded in 2002, operating in this corporate name claims ownership of the brand name.[3]