Company Profile
Invitrogen
Company Overview
Invitrogen Corporation (NASDAQ:IVGN) is a global company with revenues of $1.3 billion. We provide products and services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as academic and government research institutions.
More than 4,700 employees work for Invitrogen and we conduct business in over 70 countries. We offer 35,000 unique products and services to support disease research, drug discovery and commercial bio-production.
Invitrogen’s product family includes many of the most widely recommended names in the industry, including Molecular Probes, Gibco, and Dynal Biotech. Our products can be found in nearly every major laboratory in the world. Many of the greatest medical discoveries of the last two decades were made using Invitrogen products, including the discovery of the AIDS virus, advancements in cancer treatment, and the development of tools to assist in stem cell research.
Founded in 1987, Invitrogen is headquartered in Carlsbad, California.
Company History
1987 Invitrogen founded by Lyle Turner, Joe Fernandez and William MacConnell
Launches its first product, The Librarian, the first complete kit for making cDNA libraries
$3,200 in sales
1988 The FastTrack kit for rapid and direct mRNA isolation from biological samples is introduced
1989 Invitrogen is incorporated
$3.2million in sales
1990 Invitrogen becomes the first to license baculovirus expression system (BEV)
Full-time sales staff established
Distributor network expanded
1991 Moves to 23,000 sq.ft facility & expands R&D
One Shot competent cells are introduced
The TA Cloning kit introduced, greatly simplifying the cloning of PCR products
Introduced Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) (now ESPP)
1993 First European subsidiary opens
Sales approximately $10million
1995 Sales exceed $33 million
1996 Completes E-Gel electrophoresis in-license deals with Ethrog technologies. Becomes exclusive distributor of E-Gel technology
1997 TOPO® cloning technology is launched, reducing overnight incubation step to 5 minutes.
1988 Launches high-throughput gene cloning and expression system using TA/TOPO® cloning technology
1999 Invitrogen goes public - Invitrogen’s initial public offering raises $48.1 million
Acquires Novex.
Precast electrophoresis gels and NuPAGE® gels added to company portfolio.
2000 Acquires LTI, greatly expanding the company’s offerings with GIBCO® cell culture, broad enzyme and transfection portfolio. Revenue boosted from $32M (Feb) – $500M (Sep)
Research Genetics
IVGN integrates Gateway® cloning technology with TOPO® cloning.
2002 ViraPower™ lentiviral and adenoviral systems for the analysis of protein function are introduced.
Acquires Informax
2003 Greg Lucier appointed as CEO
Block-iT™ RNAi suite and GeneBLAzer® technology are launched for the study of gene regulation.
Acquires Molecular Probes, a leader in fluorescent-based technologies for labeling and detection.
Sequitur - adding Stealth™ RNAi to the company’s portfolio.
PanVera and its leading-edge biochemical and cellular assay capabilities.
BioReliance
2004 Sales reach $1.0 billion.
Acquires Protometrix —launches first commercially available human protein microarray.
DNA Research Innovation (DRI) adds nucleic acid purification technology to company portfolio.
Bio Asia - makes IVGN major supplier of research products in China.
2005 Acquires Qdot® nanocrystals as part of Quantum Dot, Dynal Biotech - magnetic bead separation technology, HLA diagnostics. Caltag™, Zymed®, and BioSource™ provide broad antibody portfolio.
2006 Launches online tools iGene, iProtocol™, and the antibody selector tool.
Launches desktop instrument suite, including Qubit™ and iBlot™ tools.
Acquires Sentigen, expanding the company’s cellular assay capabilities
2007 Divested BioReliance
Launched Algimatrix – 3D cell culture matrix
Acquires:
– Cascade Biologics
– Perfume
– Cellz Direct