Agilent Technologies

In the early 2000s, "economic uncertainty" depressed demand for Agilent's products,[10] 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.[6] The downturn also struck sales in the communications and semiconductor markets, where orders amounting to $500 million were canceled by buyers.[11] 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,[11] it had by early 2003 cut 18,500 positions.[10] In 2001, in midst of this downsizing, Agilent sold its health care and medical products organization to Philips Medical Systems,[12] and was noted as having a valuation of about $11 billion.[13] 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 semiconductor business, which produced chips for a wide range of consumer and industrial uses, to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Silver Lake Partners for $2.66 billion.[1] 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.[1] The group operated as a private company, Avago Technologies, until August 2009, when it was brought public in an IPO. After purchasing Broadcom Corporation in 2016, Avago changed its name to Broadcom Limited.

Also in August 2005, Agilent sold its 47% stake in the light-emitting diode manufacturer Lumileds to Philips for $1 billion.[1] Lumileds originally started as Hewlett-Packard's optoelectronics division.

Also in August 2005, Agilent announced a plan to divest its semiconductor test solutions business, composed of both the system-on-chip and memory test market areas.[1] Agilent listed the new company as Verigy on NASDAQ in mid-2006.

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 inspection, and automated X-ray products [5DX] in 2004. In 2011, the company, along with the University of California, Davis, announced that it would be establishing the "Davis Millimeter Wave Research Center".[14] Agilent announced it would increase its life sciences engagement through the acquisition of Halo Genomics, based in Uppsala, Sweden, which was involved in next-generation sequencing technology development.[15]

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.[16]

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. 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 was completed.[2] 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.[17]

Agilent celebrated its 50th anniversary in the analytical instruments market. 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.[18]

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.[19] In December the company acquired Multiplicom N.V.[20]

In January 2018, the company announced it would acquire Luxcel Biosciences, increasing the company's cell analysis portfolio.[21] In May, Agilent acquired Lasergen, Inc. after the end of its two-year option on a prior investment.[22] In the same month it acquired digital laboratory management company, Genohm,[23] Ultra Scientific, provider of chemical standards and reference materials[24] and Advanced Analytical Technologies, Inc. (AATI), provider of capillary electrophoresis-based molecules for $250 million in cash.[25] In August the company announced it would acquire glycan reagent producer, ProZyme, Inc.[26] and South Korean instrument distributor, Young In Scientific Co. Ltd.[27] In September Agilent acquired ACEA Biosciences for $250 million increasing the company's presence in cell analysis technologies.[28] In August 2019, Agilent acquired US-based BioTek Instruments, a global leader in design, manufacture and distribution of innovative life science instrumentation, for $1.165 billion.[29][30]

• Leflar, James A. (2001). Practical TPM: Successful Equipment Management at Agilent Technologies. Portland, Oregon: Productivity Press. ISBN 9781563272424. OCLC 45493253 – via Google Books (preview).

• Frank, Steve (10 September 2000). "Playing the Net". Santa Cruz Sentinel. Retrieved 2015-07-28 – via Newspapers.com. Q: Last month I purchased shares of Agilent Technologies and the price has gone up and down since then. Are its future prospects solid?