Agilent splits up to create two separate businesses

Agilent is splitting into two companies

Related tags Molecular biology Chromatography

Agilent Technologies has officially separated its biopharma service offerings from its electric measurement group to create two separate companies, the life science portion of which is expected to bring in about $3.9B in FY2013.

The plan to separate into two publicly traded companies is based on the idea of increasing management’s focus on the distinct businesses and to devote more “resources to the higher-growth LDA [life sciences, diagnostics and applied markets] business,” according to an SEC filing from Thursday.

The new Santa Clara, California-based life sciences portion of Agilent will include about 11,500 employees, while the electronic measurement company will be based in Santa Rosa, California and include about 9,500 employees.

Bill Sullivan will remain president and CEO of Agilent, while Didier Hirsch will continues as CFO, though the electronic measurement company will see new management.

Agilent’s life sciences division will continue to offer biopharma companies services in:

Liquid and gas chromatography, including reversed phase, ion exchange and size exclusion, as well as evaporative light scattering;
Mass spectrometry; and
Spectroscopy.

Agilent also offers tools to help biopharma companies purify target proteins, quantitate them, and supports enzymatic reactions. But Agilent spokesman Eric Endicott told us that biopharma "is not a focus" of either of the two companies.