Next Generation Sequencing

Invitrogen Corporation and Applera Corporation today announced that their Boards of Directors have approved a definitive merger agreement, under which Invitrogen will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Applera’s Applied Biosystems Group in a cash and stock transaction valued at $6.7 billion.

One of the stated rationales for the merger, is that Invitrogen and Applied Biosystems will be well positioned to compete in rapidly growing markets, such as next generation sequencing.