Which company acquired Celera in 2011?

Quest Diagnostics acquired Celera in 2011. The transaction brought the genomics company into the laboratory-testing corporation’s portfolio and marked the end of Celera’s life as an independent genomic-sequencing business.

Celera was founded in 1998 by PE Corporation, later renamed Applera, with J. Craig Venter as its first president. It became famous for challenging the publicly funded Human Genome Project and for using whole-genome shotgun sequencing to pursue a human genome sequence rapidly. Celera’s work helped intensify the race to produce a draft genome.

Celera was spun off as an independent company in 2008. Quest Diagnostics then completed its acquisition in May 2011, reportedly for about $657 million. Celera subsequently operated as a Quest subsidiary focused on genetic sequencing and related technologies.

The most likely confusion is with companies that supplied sequencing instruments or competed in genomics, including Illumina, Roche, and Thermo Fisher Scientific. None of those companies acquired Celera in 2011. Quest Diagnostics is the canonical answer to the question as phrased.