The megabillion-dollar buyout of Life Technologies (NASDAQ: LIFE) by Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO 0.22%) grabbed a lot of headlines earlier this week. Fool contributor Rich Smith, however, has a different story to tell.

It's the story of one overpriced company buying another company that's an even worse bargain, which resulted in a medical equipment behemoth that's even more egregiously overpriced than the two companies were separately.