Beckman Coulter, Inc. is a Danaher Corporation company that develops, manufactures, and markets products relevant to biomedical testing. It operates in the industries of diagnostics under the brand name Beckman Coulter and

life sciences This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, ...

under the brand name Beckman Coulter Life Sciences. The company was established in 1935 as National Technical Laboratories, and has become an international company through growth and acquisitions of other life sciences organizations. The company employs over 12,000 people, with $5.8 billion in annual sales by 2017. It is currently headquartered in Brea, California. Beckman Coulter was acquired by Danaher Corporation in 2011.

History

The company was founded by

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...

professor Arnold O. Beckman in 1935 as National Technical Laboratories to commercialize a pH meter that he had invented. In the 1940s, Beckman changed the name to Arnold O. Beckman, Inc. to sell oxygen analyzers, the ''Helipot'' precision potentiometer, and spectrophotometers. In the 1950s, the company name changed to Beckman Instruments, Inc. In the 1950s, Beckman Instruments developed the EASE series of

analog computer An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computation machine (computer) that uses physical phenomena such as Electrical network, electrical, Mechanics, mechanical, or Hydraulics, hydraulic quantities behaving according to the math ...

s, two of which were used by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

in the 1960s for real-time simulation during the development of the Apollo Guidance Computer. In 1954, Beckman Instruments acquired ultracentrifuge maker Spinco (Specialized Instruments Corp.). The Spinco division went on to design and manufacture a broad range of laboratory centrifuges. In 1955, Beckman established the seminal Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory as a division of Beckman Instruments to begin commercializing the semiconductor

transistor A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...

technology invented by

alumnus

William Shockley William Bradford Shockley ( ; February 13, 1910 – August 12, 1989) was an American solid-state physicist, electrical engineer, and inventor. He was the manager of a research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brat ...

. Because Shockley's aging mother lived in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

, the Shockley Laboratory was established in nearby

Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, the population was 82,376 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Mountain V ...

, which has been connected to the growth of

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is 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 area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

. In 1961, Beckman acquired Offner Electronics, a company founded by inventor Franklin F. Offner. In 1982, the company merged into SmithKline to form SmithKline Beckman, with Arnold Beckman as vice chairman, but regained its independence in 1989 after SmithKline merged with ''Beecham Group'' to form SmithKline Beecham (now part of

GlaxoSmithKline GSK plc (an acronym from its former name GlaxoSmithKline plc) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutics, pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with headquarters in London. It was established in 2000 by a Mergers an ...

). In 1995, the company acquired Hybritech, Inc. from

Eli Lilly Eli Lilly (July 8, 1838 – June 6, 1898) was a Union Army officer, pharmacist, chemist, and businessman who founded Eli Lilly and Company. Lilly enlisted in the Union Army during the American Civil War and recruited a company of men to ...

. In 1996, the company acquired the Sanofi portion of

Sanofi Pasteur Sanofi Pasteur is the vaccines division of the French multinational pharmaceutical company Sanofi. Sanofi Pasteur is the largest company in the world devoted entirely to vaccines. It is one of four global producers of the yellow fever vaccin ...

Diagnostics. In 1998, the company acquired ''Coulter Corporation'', a company founded by Wallace H. Coulter, the inventor of the

Coulter counter A Coulter counter is an apparatus for counting and sizing particles suspended in electrolytes. The Coulter counter is the commercial term for the technique known as resistive pulse sensing or electrical zone sensing. The apparatus is based on t ...

. Beckman, thereafter, changed its name to Beckman Coulter. By 2003, the company has more than 200,000 systems operating in laboratories around the world. In 2005, the company acquired Diagnostic Systems Laboratories (DSL) based in Webster, Texas. In 2006, the company acquired Lumigen and Agencourt Bioscience. In 2007, the company acquired the Flow Cytometry Business Group of Dako North America, Inc. In 2009, the company acquired Lab-based Diagnostics business of

Olympus Corporation is a Japanese manufacturer of optics and reprography products, headquartered in Hachioji, Tokyo. Olympus was established in 1919, initially specializing in microscopes and thermometers, and later in imaging. Olympus holds roughly a 70 percent sh ...

Japan. That same year, the company moved its world headquarters from Fullerton, California to the newly renovated facility in Brea, California. In February 2011, Danaher announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Beckman Coulter. On June 30, 2011, Danaher finalized the acquisition of Beckman Coulter. On September 12, 2012 Danaher acquired Iris Diagnostics and its parent company IRIS International, Inc. as leader in Urinalysis Diagnostic to further boost Danaher's Diagnostic business within Beckman Coulter. Subsequently, the business was divided into two operating companies within Danaher, Beckman Coulter focused on diagnostics segments and Beckman Coulter Life Sciences focused on biomedical research and development segments. On February 1, 2015, the company finalized the acquisition of MicroScan from Siemens Healthcare. On January 3, 2019, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences announced the acquisition of Labcyte, Inc., a privately held manufacturer of acoustic liquid handlers. On May 2, 2019, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences finalized their acquisition of EDC Biosciences, a privately held manufacturer of acoustic liquid handlers.

References

External links

Beckman Coulter DiagnosticsBeckman Coulter Life SciencesBeckman Historical Collection
Science History Institutebr>Digital Collections
(Digitized corporate records of Beckman Coulter, Incorporated, as well as personal papers of American scientist and industrialist Arnold Orville Beckman) {{Authority control Electronics companies of the United States Laboratory equipment manufacturers Research support companies Manufacturing companies based in Greater Los Angeles Companies based in Brea, California Electronics companies established in 1935 Danaher subsidiaries Superfund sites in California 1935 establishments in California 2011 mergers and acquisitions Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange