In 1965,
Hewlett-Packard branched out into scientific equipment by acquiring F&M Scientific, maker of gas chromatographs. Agilent Technologies was created in 1999 as a spin-off of several business units of Hewlett-Packard including test & measurement, optics, 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 called
The HP Way. and the name "Agilent" aimed to invoke the notion of agility as a trait of the new firm. 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. These poor economic conditions prompted large reductions in force with 18,500 positions cut in 2003. 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 and
Silver Lake Partners for $2.66 billion. This move would involve termination of about 1,300 of the company's 28,000 employees. 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. 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 Keysight, 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. In September 2015, the company announced it would acquire
Seahorse Bioscience for $235 million. On July 7, 2016, Agilent announced that it 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. On May 1, 2024, Padraig McDonnell succeeded Mike McMullen as CEO. == Products and services ==