Danaher Corporation is an American globally diversified conglomerate with its headquarters in

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The company designs, manufactures, and markets professional, medical, industrial, and commercial products and services. The company's 3 platforms are " Life Sciences", "

Diagnostics Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine "cause and effect". In systems engineer ...

", and "Environmental & Applied Solutions". Danaher is ranked 130th on the Fortune 500 2021. The company is named after Danaher Creek in

Western Montana Western Montana is the western region of the U.S. state of Montana. The most restrictive definition limits western Montana only to the parts of the state west of the Continental Divide. Other common definitions add in the mountainous areas east ...

. Founders Steven M. Rales and

Mitchell Rales Mitchell Rales (born 1956) is an American billionaire businessman, and a collector of modern and contemporary art. He co-founded Danaher Corporation in 1983 and is the chairman of its executive committee. Rales is one of the Washington, D.C. re ...

first conceptualized the company while fishing there. Danaher was one of the first companies in North America to adopt " Kaizen" principles to manufacturing, which is a lean manufacturing Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement, and elimination of waste.

History

The company was organized in 1969 as a

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real estate investment trust A real estate investment trust (REIT) is a company that owns, and in most cases operates, income-producing real estate. REITs own many types of commercial real estate, including office and apartment buildings, warehouses, hospitals, shopping cente ...

under its former name DMG, Inc. In 1978, DMG, Inc. was reorganized as a Florida corporation and changed its name to Diversified Mortgage Investors, Inc. Eventually, the company adopted the name Danaher in 1984 and was reincorporated under the

Delaware General Corporation Law The Delaware General Corporation Law (Title 8, Chapter 1 of the Delaware Code) is the statute of the Delaware Code that governs corporate law in the U.S. state of Delaware. Adopted in 1899, the statute has since seen Delaware become the most im ...

. In June 1986, Danaher purchased Chicago Pneumatic (CP), which had merged in July 1984 with a sister company, The Jacobs Manufacturing Co. (Jacobs), and which had purchased Matco Tools Corp. (MTC) in April 1981. Danaher in June 1987 sold CP while retaining Jacobs, including its Matco Tools Division. Jacobs' name was changed to Matco Tools Corp. in November 1991, and the other divisions within Jacobs were established as separate operating companies. In January 1993, Danaher formed NMTC, Inc., which acquired a substantial portion of the assets of MTC, including the existing distributorship agreements of MTC. Within two years of Danaher Corp.'s founding in 1984, Danaher Corp. acquired 12 companies as part of a strategy to enter the

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to ...

business. Therefore, in 1986 Danaher added

Qualitrol Qualitrol is a condition monitoring technology company headquartered in Fairport, New York. Qualitrol manufacturers and distributes partial discharge monitoring, asset protection equipment and information products for the electrical generation, ...

to its

instrumentation Instrumentation a collective term for measuring instruments that are used for indicating, measuring and recording physical quantities. The term has its origins in the art and science of scientific instrument-making. Instrumentation can refer to ...

unit. The unit also included

Gilbarco Veeder-Root Gilbarco Inc., doing business as Gilbarco Veeder-Root, is a supplier of fuel dispensers, point of sales systems, payment systems, forecourt merchandising and support services. The company operates as a subsidiary of Vontier and its headquarters ...

's underground fuel storage sensors, Dynapar's motion sensors and Qualitrol's

pressure Pressure (symbol: ''p'' or ''P'') is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed. Gauge pressure (also spelled ''gage'' pressure)The preferred spelling varies by country and e ...

and

temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer. Thermometers are calibrated in various Conversion of units of temperature, temp ...

measurement instruments, used on the electrical transformer industry. The Danaher Motion group acquired Kollmorgen, of

Radford, Virginia Radford (formerly Lovely Mount, Central City, English Ferry and Ingle's Ferry) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of 2020, the population was 16,070 by the United States Census Bureau. For statistical purposes, the Bureau ...

1990–2000

1990 Danaher acquires Easco Hand Tools Inc. 1991 Danaher is selected as exclusive supplier of handtools for Sears. 1994 Danaher acquires the tool company Armstrong- makers of tool brands Armstrong, Allen, and others. In 1995 Danaher acquired German components manufacturer Hengstler, a leading manufacturer of counters, printers, relays, and high-precision rotational sensors. Hengstler was Danaher's first acquisition on the European mainland, and the first Operating Company headquartered outside the United States. Since 1999 Danaher has owned 100% of Hach, broadening the portfolio of chemical, mainly water and wastewater, analytics also with the German company Lange.

2004–2006

Danaher acquired Trojan Technologies, an

environmental engineering Environmental engineering is a professional engineering discipline that encompasses broad scientific topics like chemistry, biology, ecology, geology, hydraulics, hydrology, microbiology, and mathematics to create solutions that will protect and ...

firm, in 2004. UK-based West Instruments provides control and measurement instrumentation and services for the global industrial and process markets. German instrumentation manufacturer PMA was added to the Industrial Controls Group in 2005 and enhances the range of control and measurement instrumentation. In July 2005, Danaher announced a definitive agreement to acquire

Leica Microsystems Leica Microsystems GmbH is a German microscope manufacturing company. It is a manufacturer of optical microscopes, equipment for the preparation of microscopic specimens and related products. There are ten plants in eight countries with distribu ...

. Leica manufactures a broad range of products for numerous applications requiring microscopic imaging, measurement and analysis. It also offers management systems in the areas of Life Science including biotechnology and medicine, as well as the science of raw materials and industrial quality assurance.

2007–2008

In early 2007 Danaher acquired Australian Pathology Instrument and Engineering company Vision Systems Limited. Also in 2007, Danaher made its largest acquisition to date, the purchase of

Tektronix, Inc. Tektronix, Inc., historically widely known as Tek, is an American company best known for manufacturing test and measurement devices such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment. Originally an independent ...

for US$2.85 billion. ChemTreat was acquired by Danaher in 2007 as well.

2009–2010

In 2009 Danaher purchased the Analytical Technologies business unit of Canadian Life Sciences company MDS, Inc. for US$650 million. In a separate, but related transaction, Danaher agreed with Life Technologies Corporation (Nasdaq: LIFE) to acquire the remaining 50% ownership position in AB SCIEX for US$450 million, leaving Danaher as outright owner of AB SCIEX and Molecular Devices. The aggregate purchase price for the combined transactions is $1.1 billion.

2011–2012

In 2011, Danaher acquired

Beckman Coulter Beckman Coulter Inc. is a Danaher Corporation company that develops, manufactures, and markets products that simplify, automate and innovate complex biomedical testing. It operates in two industries: Diagnostics and Life Sciences. For more than ...

and sold Accu-sort to Datalogic. In October 2012, Danaher Corporation and

Cooper Industries Cooper Industries was an American worldwide electrical products manufacturer headquartered in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1833, the company had seven operating divisions including Bussmann electrical and electronic fuses; Crouse-Hinds and CEAG ex ...

agreed to sell their joint venture, Apex Tool Group, to

Bain Capital Bain Capital is an American private investment firm based in Boston. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, impact investing, life sciences, and real estate. Bain Capital invests across a range of industry se ...

for a fee of around $1.6 billion. In December 2012 Danaher Corporation acquired Navman Wireless, a provider of on-demand fleet and asset management technology.

2013–2014

In September 2014, Danaher Corp announced its intention to buy

Nobel Biocare Nobel Biocare is a company that manufactures dental implants and CAD/CAM-based individualized prosthetics and is headquartered in Kloten, Switzerland near the Zürich Airport. Nobel Biocare in its current form was founded in 2002. It originates ...

for $2.2 billion. In October 2014, Danaher Corp announced it would be combining its communications unit with

NetScout Systems NetScout Systems, Inc. (stylized as NETSCOUT) is a provider of application performance management and network performance management products located in Westford, Massachusetts. In July 2015, NetScout acquired the communications business of Dana ...

. The action was completed in July 2015

2015–2016

In May 2015, Danaher Corp announced the acquisition of

Pall Corporation Pall Corporation, headquartered in Port Washington, New York, is a global supplier of filtration, separations and purification products. Total revenues for fiscal year 2014 were $2.8 billion, with $103 million spent on R&D. Pall Corporation's bu ...

for $13.8 billion, which was completed in August 2015. In June 2016, Danaher spun off several subsidiaries, including Matco and AMMCO-COATS, to create

Fortive Fortive is an American diversified industrial technology conglomerate company headquartered in Everett, Washington. Fortive was spun off from Danaher in July 2016. Mitchell Rales and Steven M. Rales, Danaher's founders, retained board seats ...

. In September of the same year, the company announced it would acquire

Cepheid A Cepheid variable () is a type of star that pulsates radially, varying in both diameter and temperature and producing changes in brightness with a well-defined stable period and amplitude. A strong direct relationship between a Cepheid varia ...

for $4 billion (including debt). In October 2016, Danaher Corporation acquired Phenomenex for $700 million to expand its life sciences space.

2017–present

In October 2017, Danaher announced the acquisition of scientific informatics company ID Business Solutions Ltd. (IDBS). It was announced that IDBS would become part of Danaher's Life Sciences platform. In 2017, Danaher recorded $18.3 billion in revenue. In March 2018, the business announced it would acquire

Integrated DNA Technologies Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc. (IDT), headquartered in Coralville, Iowa, is a supplier of custom nucleic acids, serving the areas of academic research, biotechnology, clinical diagnostics, and pharmaceutical development. IDT's primary busin ...

for an undisclosed price. In July 2018, Danaher announced its intention to spin off its $2.8 billion Dental segment into an independent publicly traded company. The

corporate spin-off A corporate spin-off, also known as a spin-out, or starburst or hive-off, is a type of corporate action where a company "splits off" a section as a separate business or creates a second incarnation, even if the first is still active. Characte ...

was completed in December 2019, with the new company called Envista. In October 2019, Danaher announced it has signed an agreement to sell its biomolecular characterization, chromatography hardware and resins, microcarriers and particle validation standards businesses to Sartorius AG for approximately $750 million. The combined revenue of the businesses was approximately $140 million in 2018. In 2019, Danaher was ranked by

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

as one of the best employers for diversity. On Monday, March 2, 2020, Dr. Stephen Hahn, the F.D.A.’s commissioner, said that the agency had taken actions to allow private labs and companies to begin making their own coronavirus tests in order to greatly expand the U.S. capacity to test for the virus. Dr. Hahn went on to note, "There will be — the estimates we’re getting from industry right now, by the end of this week, close to a million tests will be able to be performed." The following morning, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services noted that Dr. Hahn was referring to tests being produced by an outside manufacturer,

. IDT is a division of Danaher which was acquired in early 2019. In March 2020, Danaher acquired the biopharma business of the

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...

Life Sciences division for $21.4 billion and was named Cytiva. The unit makes equipment for the research and manufacture of pharmaceuticals. In May 2020, it was announced that Tom Joyce would retire as CEO of the company. He was replaced by executive vice-president Rainier Blair on September 1, 2020. Danaher is set to spin off its Environmental & Applied Solutions segment by Q4 2023.

Divisions

Environmental & Applied Solutions

* Esko * Hach *

Pantone Pantone LLC (stylized as PANTONE) is a limited liability company headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, notably graphi ...

X-Rite X-Rite, Inc. is a manufacturer of color measurement and management products, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States. The company also creates products that regulate quality in the processing of film and x-rays. History The firm wa ...

*Foba Laser Alltec GmbH *Videojet *Laetus GmbH *ChemTreat *Trojan Technologies *ChemTreat *LINX *Aquatic Informatics

Life Sciences

AldevronCytiva
* Beckman Coulter Life Sciences *

* Molecular Devices *

*Phenomenex *

SCIEX SCIEX is a manufacturer of mass spectrometry instrumentation used in biomedical and environmental applications. Originally started by scientists from the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, it is now part of Danaher Corporation ...

Diagnostics

* Beckman Coulter Diagnostics *

*HemoCue *

Leica Biosystems Leica Biosystems (founded 1989) is a medical devices company that develops and supplies clinical diagnostics to the pathology market. It is also a research, instrument, and medical device company as well as a division of Danaher Corporation. Co ...

* Radiometer *Mammotome Source:

Former operating companies

Fortive (formerly Test & Measurement segment)

* Fluke Corporation *

Tektronix Tektronix, Inc., historically widely known as Tek, is an American company best known for manufacturing test and measurement devices such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment. Originally an independent ...

* Kollmorgen *

Jacobs Vehicle Systems * Jacobs Vehicle Systems, Inc. is an American company that engineers, develops and manufacturers commercial vehicle retarding and valve actuation technologies. The company produces light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty engine brakes, recreation ...

Matco Tools Matco Tools, Inc. is an American professional tool distribution franchise for the automotive and other industries and is based in Stow, Ohio, United States. This includes over 13,000 different tools such as wrenches, screw drivers, gauges, and ...

(now part of Vontier Corporation) *

Teletrac Teletrac (branded as Teletrac Navman; formerly Trafficmaster) is a software as a service company headquartered in Southern California, with offices in the United Kingdom. It provides cloud-based GPS fleet tracking software, stolen vehicle tracki ...

(now part of Vontier Corporation) * Gilbarco (now part of Vontier Corporation)

Envista (formerly Dental segment)

* KaVo * Kerr * Ormco *

Other former operating companies

Armstrong Tools Armstrong Tools was an American industrial hand tool manufacturer. In its final years, it existed as a brand of Apex Tool Group, LLC and manufactured the majority of its tools in the United States, focusing mostly on aerospace, government, and m ...

*Dynapar *

Gems Sensors & Controls Gems Sensors and Controls is a global manufacturer of application engineered sensors. Founded in 1955, it makes level, pressure and flow sensors for use in a wide range of fluids across industry. Gems Sensors is a division of Fortive Corporatio ...

* Hengstler *Joslyn Clark

References

External links

{{Authority control 1969 establishments in Washington, D.C. American companies established in 1969 Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Conglomerate companies established in 1969 Conglomerate companies of the United States Electronics companies established in 1969 Hand tools Manufacturing companies based in Washington, D.C. Multinational companies headquartered in the United States Tool manufacturing companies of the United States Electric motor manufacturers