Thermo Fisher ($TMO) has released details concerning the execution of a $2.2 billion sale of common stock--a massive undertaking designed to help cover its $13.6 billion bid to buy Life Technologies ($LIFE). As Mass High Tech/Boston Business Journal reports, plans call for offering 29.6 million shares in something known as "forward sale agreements" with banks, so the transaction will delay dilution of stock. Of course, if underwriters exercise all over-allotments, the total offering could reach as high as $2.5 billion, the company noted in a regulatory filing cited in the story. Story | SEC filing