Agilent Technologies, Inc. is an American life sciences company that provides instruments, software, services, and consumables for the entire laboratory workflow. Its global headquarters is located in
Santa Clara, California
Santa Clara (; Spanish for " Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 census, making it the eighth-most populous city in the Bay Area. Located in the southern Bay Area, the cit ...
. Agilent was established in 1999 as a spin-off from
Hewlett-Packard. The resulting
IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
of Agilent stock was the largest in the history of
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...
at the time.
Agilent focuses its products and services on six markets: food, environmental and forensics, pharmaceutical, diagnostics, chemicals and advanced materials, and research. From 1999 to 2014, the company also produced test and measurement equipment for electronics; that division was spun off to form
Keysight
Keysight Technologies, or Keysight, is an American company that manufactures electronics test and measurement equipment and software. The name is a blend of ''key'' and ''insight''. The company was formed as a spin-off of Agilent Technologies, wh ...
.
Products and services
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Agilent serves analytical laboratories and the clinical and routine diagnostics markets with a full suite of technology platforms. These include:
automation
Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...
, bioreagents,
FISH probes, gas and liquid chromatography,
immunohistochemistry,
informatics,
mass spectrometry,
microarrays
A microarray is a multiplex lab-on-a-chip. Its purpose is to simultaneously detect the expression of thousands of genes from a sample (e.g. from a tissue). It is a two-dimensional array on a solid substrate—usually a glass slide or silicon ...
,
spectroscopy, target enrichment, and vacuum technologies.
Agilent also provides lab management services, including
enterprise asset management Enterprise asset management (EAM) involves the management of the maintenance of physical assets of an organization throughout each asset's lifecycle. EAM is used to plan, optimize, execute, and track the needed maintenance activities with the associ ...
, laboratory business intelligence, equipment management and service,
software maintenance,
regulatory compliance, sample preparation, genomics and cloning, GC and HPLC columns, spectrometry and spectroscopy supplies, and consumables.
The company is known for investing in R&D within its own research labs and those of leading universities to advance the state of knowledge in the life sciences, diagnostics, and chemical analysis space.
In recent years, the company has advanced digital lab instrumentation and technology that improves lab workflow and overall efficiency and productivity. In 2020, Agilent introduced CrossLab Virtual Assist, a mobile app that facilities high-quality remote technical support. Agilent’s digital advancements, including CrossLab Connect, have also improved lab optimization and sustainability by providing more efficient utilization of instruments, which can lower a lab’s energy consumption.
Agilent is also a pioneer of the target enrichment used as part of a NGS workflow. The portfolio also includes sample prep, QA/QC instrumentation, 2100 bioanalyzers, and automation tools.
History
Agilent Technologies was created in 1999 by the spin-off of
Hewlett-Packard's (HP's) "Medical Products and Instrument Group",
including instrumentation and chemical analysis, electronic components, and medical equipment product lines.
. The split was predicated on the difficulty of growing HP's revenue stream and on the competitive vigor of smaller, more agile competitors.
The company's launch slogan was "Innovating the HP Way", which capitalized on the strong HP corporate culture.
The
starburst logo was selected to reflect "a burst of insight" (or "spark of insight") and the name "Agilent" aimed to invoke the notion of agility as a trait of the new firm.
The Agilent spin-off was accompanied by an
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...
which raised $2.1 billion, setting a record at the time.
2000–2009
In the early 2000s, "economic uncertainty" depressed demand for Agilent's products,
including slow sales of health care products to hospitals in the United States, which accounted for 60% of the company's revenue at the time.
The downturn also struck sales in the communications and semiconductor markets, where orders amounting to $500 million were canceled by buyers.
These poor economic conditions prompted large reductions in force; from a headcount in 1999 of 35,000, which had risen to 48,000 by May 2001,
it had by early 2003 cut 18,500 positions.
In 2001, in midst of this downsizing, Agilent sold its health care and medical products organization to
Philips Medical Systems
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...
,
and was noted as having a valuation of about $11 billion. HP Medical Products had been the second oldest part of
Hewlett-Packard, acquired in the 1950s.
In August 2005, Agilent announced the sale of its business which produced semiconductor
integrated circuits (known as "chips") for consumer and industrial uses to
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strate ...
and
Silver Lake Partners for $2.66 billion.
This move was part of a broad effort to concentrate "on the test-and-measurement business at its historic core," and would entail termination of about 1,300 of the company's 28,000 employees.
The group operated as a private company,
Avago Technologies
Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wirel ...
, until August 2009, when it was brought public in an IPO. After purchasing
Broadcom Corporation
Broadcom Corporation is an American fabless semiconductor company that makes products for the wireless and broadband communication industry. It was acquired by Avago Technologies in 2016 and operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of the merged ...
in 2016, Avago changed its name to
Broadcom Limited
Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wirel ...
.
Also in August 2005, Agilent sold its 47% stake in the
light-emitting diode
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (co ...
manufacturer
Lumileds
Lumileds is a lighting company that develops, manufactures, and distributes LEDs, light bulbs, and related products for automotive lighting, general lighting, and specialty lighting. Lumileds operates as a private company, having funds affili ...
to
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
for $1 billion.
Lumileds originally started as
Hewlett-Packard's optoelectronics division.
Also in August 2005, Agilent announced a plan to divest its semiconductor test business, composed of both the system-on-chip and memory test market areas.
Agilent listed the new company as
Verigy
Verigy Ltd was a Cupertino, California-based semiconductor automatic test equipment manufacturer. The company existed as a business within Hewlett Packard before it was spun off in 2006 as a standalone company. It was purchased by Advantest in 2 ...
on
NASDAQ in mid-2006.
2010 onwards
In 2009, Agilent announced the closure of a subsection of its Test & Measurement division. The product lines affected included the automated optical inspection,
solder paste
Solder paste is used in the manufacture of printed circuit boards to connect surface mount components to pads on the board. It is also possible to solder through-hole pin in paste components by printing solder paste in and over the holes. The s ...
inspection, and automated products
DXin 2004. In 2011, the company, along with the
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...
, announced that it would be establishing the "Davis Millimeter Wave Research Center". Agilent announced it would increase its life sciences engagement through the acquisition of Halo Genomics, based in
Uppsala
Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019.
Located north of the c ...
, Sweden, which was involved in
next-generation sequencing Massive parallel sequencing or massively parallel sequencing is any of several high-throughput approaches to DNA sequencing using the concept of massively parallel processing; it is also called next-generation sequencing (NGS) or second-generation ...
technology development.
On May 17, 2012, Agilent agreed to buy Dako, a Danish cancer diagnostics company, for $2.2 billion, to expand its presence in the life sciences industry.
On September 19, 2013, Agilent announced its decision to separate into two publicly traded companies: Agilent, a life sciences, diagnostics, and applied markets company, and an electronic measurement company. The life sciences company retained the Agilent name and the electronic measurement company was called
Keysight Technologies
Keysight Technologies, or Keysight, is an American company that manufactures electronics test and measurement equipment and software. The name is a blend of ''key'' and ''insight''. The company was formed as a spin-off of Agilent Technologies, wh ...
. On October 14, 2014, the company announced that it is exiting its Nuclear Magnetic Resonance business. On November 1, the formal separation of Agilent and
Keysight Technologies
Keysight Technologies, or Keysight, is an American company that manufactures electronics test and measurement equipment and software. The name is a blend of ''key'' and ''insight''. The company was formed as a spin-off of Agilent Technologies, wh ...
was completed.
Agilent announced it had completed the spin-off of its electronic measurement business, Keysight Technologies. Keysight began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol KEYS. The separation was implemented through a spinoff of Keysight's common stock and was intended to be tax-free for U.S. federal income tax purposes. On November 1, 2014, in a special dividend distribution of all outstanding shares of Keysight's common stock, Agilent shareholders received one share of Keysight common stock for every two shares of Agilent common stock held as of close of business October 22, 2014.
Hewlett-Packard Co., Agilent's predecessor, acquired F&M Scientific Corp., maker of gas chromatographs, on August 8, 1965. In September 2015, the company announced it would acquire
Seahorse Bioscience for $235 million.
On July 7, 2016, Agilent announced that they had acquired U.K. based Cobalt Light Systems, which develops and manufactures
Raman spectroscopy instruments, for £40 million in cash. In December the company acquired Multiplicom N.V.
In January 2018, the company announced it would acquire Luxcel Biosciences, increasing the company's cell analysis portfolio. In May, Agilent acquired Lasergen, Inc. after the end of its two-year option on a prior investment. In the same month it acquired digital laboratory management company, Genohm, Ultra Scientific, provider of chemical standards and reference materials and Advanced Analytical Technologies, Inc. (AATI), provider of capillary
electrophoresis-based molecules for $250 million in cash. In August the company announced it would acquire glycan reagent producer, ProZyme, Inc. and South Korean instrument distributor, Young In Scientific Co. Ltd. In September Agilent acquired ACEA Biosciences for $250 million increasing the company's presence in cell analysis technologies. In August 2019, Agilent acquired US-based BioTek Instruments, a designer, manufacturer, and distributor of life science instrumentation, for $1.165 billion.
See also
*
Laboratory equipment
A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physicia ...
*
Scientific instrument
A scientific instrument is a device or tool used for scientific purposes, including the study of both natural phenomena and theoretical research.
History
Historically, the definition of a scientific instrument has varied, based on usage, laws, an ...
Notes
References
Further reading
Books
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News items
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External links
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{{Authority control
1999 establishments in California
Biotechnology companies of the United States
Companies based in Santa Clara, California
Health care companies based in California
Medical technology companies of the United States
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Hewlett-Packard
Instrument-making corporations
Research support companies
Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Technology companies established in 1999
Health care companies established in 1999
Corporate spin-offs
1999 initial public offerings