The company was founded by
Caltech professor
Arnold O. Beckman in 1935 as
National Technical Laboratories to commercialize a
pH meter that he had invented. In the 1940s, the name was changed the name to Arnold O. Beckman, Inc. to sell oxygen analyzers, the
Helipot precision
potentiometer, and
spectrophotometers. The company name changed to Beckman Instruments, Inc. before going public in 1952. In the 1950s, Beckman Instruments developed the EASE series of
analog computers, two of which were used by
NASA in the 1960s for
real-time simulation during the development of the
Apollo Guidance Computer. 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). Following the acquisition of Hybritech, Inc. from
Eli Lilly in 1985 and Sanofi of
Sanofi Pasteur Diagnostics in 1996, the company acquired Coulter Corporation in 1998, a company founded by
Wallace H. Coulter, the inventor of the
Coulter counter. The merged company became Beckman Coulter. Following the company's acquisition of the Lab-based Diagnostics business of
Olympus Corporation Japan in 2009, Beckman Coulter moved its world headquarters from
Fullerton, California to a newly renovated facility in Brea. 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. One year later, 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. == Division after Danaher acquisition ==