Applera Corporation of Norwalk, Connecticut, at #874 on the 2007 Fortune 1000 list, was one of the largest international biotechnology companies based in the United States. It was the successor company to what was the Life Sciences Division of Perkin-Elmer Corporation. Applera was not publicly traded, but instead it consisted of two major groups which are publicly traded tracking stocks in the proteomics industrial sector. These two groups were the S&P 500 listed Applera Corp-Applied Biosystems Group (NYSE: ABI) of Foster City, California, and Applera Corp-Celera Genomics Group (NYSE: CRA) of Rockville, Maryland. In 2006, the company spun off the Celera Genomics group and changed its name from Applera to Applied Biosystems. The firm developed and marketed instrument-based systems, consumables, software, and services to the life science industry and research community in the United States and internationally. Its tools are used to analyze nucleic acids, such as DNA and RNA; small molecules; and proteins to make scientific discoveries and develop new pharmaceuticals. The company's tools and services are used to accelerate scientific discovery, improve processes related to drug discovery and development, detect potentially pathogenic microorganisms, and identify individuals based on DNA sources for customers in various disciplines, including academic and clinical research, pharmaceutical research and manufacturing, forensic DNA analysis, and agricultural biotechnology. Its products also serve the needs of applied markets, such as the fields of human identity testing, such as forensic and paternity testing; biosecurity, which refers to products needed in response to the threat of biological terrorism and other malicious, accidental, and natural biological dangers; and quality and safety testing, including testing required for food and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The company was formerly known as The Perkin-Elmer Corporation and changed its name to Applera Corp. in November, 2000. The company was founded in 1939 and is based in Norwalk, Connecticut. As the former Perkin-Elmer (formerly NYSE: PKN), Applera had a history dating back to 1931. But more precisely, its history dates from 1999, when Perkin-Elmer effectively split in half, and sold off its more traditional half of the business to EG&G Inc. (formerly NYSE: EGG). As part of the deal, it also sold the Perkin-Elmer name, because that most properly associated with that traditional line of products, and EG&G then became the new PerkinElmer (NYSE: PKI). At that point the remaining Connecticut Life Sciences company issued its two tracking stocks, and also changed its own name to PE Corporation. The Applied Biosystems group had earlier already been renamed PE Biosystems, and it retained that name in the first incarnation of its tracking stock (formerly NYSE: PEB). In 2000, the Applied Biosystems name was restored to the group, with the new stock ticker symbol ABI, and PE Corporation became Applera, a combination of its two components' names, Appl(iedCel)era.[1][2]
