DEAR STOCKHOLDERS
The promise of life science is great. Understanding how life works holds the key to curing disease, saving lives, and improving the human condition. At Invitrogen, we’re dedicated to helping scientists accelerate their understanding of living systems. From breakthrough technologies that improve research to customized solutions that eliminate bottlenecks in drug discovery, today’s Invitrogen is uniquely positioned to help make possible life science’s greatest promises.

This is a company with big dreams. From our humble start 16 years ago, we have successfully transformed ourselves into a global leader. In 1987, we had a vision: to bring to market innovative technologies that would make life science research faster, easier, and more reliable. Today, we’ve crystallized this vision into a clear and compelling goal: to link our technologies, products, and services into a valuable solution suite that will revolutionize drug discovery, development, and production. We call this the Invitrogen Operating System, and in 2003, we made tremendous progress toward our goal.

Before I talk about what drove our progress this year, I want to highlight our financial performance. In 2003, we grew revenues 20% over 2002 to $778 million. Pro forma net income and pro forma earnings per share increased 23% to $119.3 million and $2.23 per share, respectively. On a GAAP basis, net income increased 26% to $60 million and earnings per share rose 30% to $1.17. Throughout 2003, we raised our guidance and finished the year well above expectations. We delivered what we promised. We had a terrific year. And for that we thank our customers, our employees, and our stockholders for their loyalty and support in helping us achieve this growth.

Now, let’s take a look at the three core drivers that enabled this strong financial performance: essential market-leading products and services, strategic acquisitions of synergistic companies, and enduring relationships with our customers.