Agilent separates life sciences and electronics biz

Agilent Technologies plan to bifurcate into two separate companies, one for life sciences, diagnostics and applied markets and other for electronics and semiconductor test tool and design software industry. The company with the name Agilent will own Life sciences, diagnostics and applied market business. The company owning electronics measurement business will have a new name. Agilent was formed by separating test and analysis business from Hewlett-Packard (HP). HP was founded as a electronic measurements equipment maker. Now the present HP doesn't own any of that business. HP is now into computers, printers and such IT products. For Agilent, the expertise in electronic measurements might have helped in building bio-analysis systems. To some extent the core of the technology for both bioresearch and electronic research is same. But the markets and applications are different. This might have prompted Agilent to go for bifurcation. The life sciences business is a fast growth business compared to cyclical electronic measurement business, as per Agilent Bill Sullivan is president and CEO of Agilent, and Didier Hirsch continues as CFO. For the full year 2013 Agilent estimates a revenue $2.9 billion in the electronic measurement business. The highly sophisticated precision electronic measuring instruments from Agilent are used in communications; aerospace and ...