Puts Purchased on Millipore Corp. (MIL)

Shares of Millipore Corp.

ended the session higher by 0.19%, trading at $106.95. The stock has been trading largely sideways of the past six months. Options traders were buying some puts today, trying to protect their gains in the stock. The January 2011 $105 put was purchased 1,500 times on open interest of 6,631 contracts. This pushed put volume to 2.34x the daily average. The European Commission said Wednesday that it had cleared German pharmaceutical and chemical company, Merck

, to buy U.S. laboratory and biotech supply company, Millipore, for $7.2 billion, including debt. Millipore Corporation is a life science company. The company's products and services are used in life science research, drug discovery, process development and drug manufacturing. Its Bioscience Division provides products and technologies to life science research and development activities.