LIFE: Invitrogen to buy applied biosystems

Invitrogen has announced plans to buy Applied Biosystems at $5 under what analysts recommended ABI sell for. This deal will add $2 billion in debt to IVGN, but it will make the company much stronger and eliminate one of their main competitors. IVGN and ABI both make supplies for DNA testing (among other things). You may have heard of one of the latest crazes, recreational DNA testing, where customers purchase DNA test kits to learn more about their ancestry (these are the companies that make those kits, as well as kits for criminal forensic DNA testing). The companies expect the merger to have a modest increase in returns this year, but to significanly rise next year.