Effective July 1, 2008, the name of Applera Corporation was changed to Applied Biosystems Inc. to reflect the business of the corporation following the split-off of Applera's Celera Group as an independent company. Between 1999 and July 1, 2008, Applera consisted of two business groups, Applied Biosystems Group and Celera Genomics Group (renamed Celera Group in 2006) and had two classes of publicly traded common stock which were intended to reflect the relative performance of these two groups. Additionally, in June 2008, Applera and Invitrogen Corporation entered into a definitive merger agreement to combine Applied Biosystems and Invitrogen. Completion of the merger is subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals and other conditions and is targeted for fall 2008.