Trade.Information

Company Name: Agilent Technologies

Company Type: Measurement type service provider

Company Profile

Agilent Technologies, a spin-off of Hewlett-Packard Company, broke records on Nov. 18, 1999 as the largest initial public offering (IPO) in Silicon Valley history. The US $2.1 billion raised from that IPO was a sharp contrast to the $538 in working capital that founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard began with in 1938. From a small garage in Palo Alto, California, to employees around the world serving customers in 110 countries, Agilent has a long history of innovation and leadership in the communications, electronics, semiconductor, test and measurement, life sciences and chemical analysis industries.

The Agilent History Center and Archives preserves materials that document the founding, growth, development, organization, management and achievements of the company. It is located in room 5022, just off the Santa Clara Campus’s main lobby at 5301 Stevens Creek Blvd. in Santa Clara, Calif. For historical questions and information, or information about touring the History Center, contact Devon Dawson at 408-553-7571 or archives@agilent.com.

• The 1930s
• The 1940s
• The 1950s
• The 1960s
• The 1970s
• The 1980s
• The 1990s
• The 2000s

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1930s

Following graduation from Stanford University in 1934, electrical engineers Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett went on a two-week camping and fishing trip in the Colorado mountains. On this trip, they discovered strong similarities in their attitudes toward many things and became close friends. After graduation, Bill continued graduate studies at Stanford and MIT while Dave took a job with General Electric in New York state. Within a few years, and with the encouragement of Stanford professor and mentor Fred Terman, the two decided to start a business “and make a run for it.”

1938

• Dave and Lucile Packard move back to California into the house at 367 Addison Avenue, Palo Alto. Bill Hewlett rents the cottage behind the house and Bill and Dave begin part-time work in the garage with $538 in working capital.
• Bill Hewlett’s study of negative feedback results in Hewlett-Packard’s first product—the resistance-capacity audio oscillator (HP200A), an electronic instrument used to test sound equipment. The oscillator uses an incandescent bulb as part of its wiring scheme to provide variable resistance, a breakthrough in stability in oscillator design. The principle of feedback provides the foundation for other early HP products such as a harmonic wave analyzer and several distortion analyzers.

1939

• Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard form partnership Jan. 1, 1939; coin toss decides company name.
• Eight HP 200B audio oscillators are used by Walt Disney to test sound equipment in creating the groundbreaking sound system for the movie “Fantasia.”

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1940s

Test and measurement products win widespread acceptance among engineers and scientists. The start of World War II turns a trickle of U.S. government orders for electronic instruments into a stream and then a flood. New products are added and HP builds its first corporate headquarters, manufacturing plants and research-and-development facilities.

1940

• Production moves from garage to rented building at Page Mill Road and El Camino Real in Palo Alto.
• The company gives its first bonus to employees, a $5 Christmas bonus. This later becomes a production bonus and—later still—company-wide profit-sharing plan.
• Net Revenue: $34,000; Employees: 3; Products: 8.

1942

• Construction of first company-owned building, a 10,000-square foot office/laboratory/factory (Redwood Building) at 395 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, Calif. Bill and Dave designed it as an open system—without interior walls—so the space could be flexible.
• Dave Packard designs a voltmeter that gives unprecedented reliability at a lower price than the competition.

1943

• Company enters the microwave field with signal generators developed for the Naval Research Laboratory and a radar-jamming device. A complete line of microwave test products follows World War II, and the company becomes the acknowledged leader in signal generators.

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1950s

Bill and Dave, with the help of their management team, develop the company’s corporate objectives—the basis of its special management philosophy—and the company embarks upon a path toward globalization.

1950

• Major advances in microwave instrumentation lead to more comprehensive test results and higher accuracy.

1951

• Introduction of the high-speed frequency counter (HP 524A) reduces the time required (from about 10 minutes to one or two seconds) to measure high frequencies. One application: radio stations use the HP 524A to accurately set frequencies (e.g. 104.7 FM) to comply with FCC regulations for frequency stability.
• Net Revenue: $5.5 million; Employees: 215.

1957

• First public stock offering: Nov. 6, 1957.
• Corporate objectives are written to serve as basis for the HP Way, a management style that Agilent will continue to emulate.

1958

• Net Revenue: $30 million; Employees: 1,778; Products: 373.

1959

• Following the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957, the company establishes its presence outside of California with European Marketing Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and first manufacturing plant outside of U.S. in Boeblingen, West Germany.

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1960s

Test and measurement field continues its steady growth. Company branches out into related fields such as medical electronics and analytical instrumentation, and begins to be noticed as a progressive, well-managed company and a great place to work.

1960

• New oscilloscope design is the first to use a new sampling technique to view the faster digital waveforms used in computer technology.
• Company establishes first U.S. manufacturing plant outside of Palo Alto in Loveland, Colorado.

1961

• Company enters medical field with purchase of Sanborn Company, Waltham, Massachusetts.
• Lists on New York Stock Exchange.

1962

• HP's first listing on Fortune magazine’s list of the top 500 U.S. companies: No. 460.

1963

• First joint venture is formed (with Yokogawa Electric Works): Yokogawa Hewlett-Packard in Tokyo, Japan.
• First synthesizer to generate electrical signal at a precise frequency desired becomes a major contribution to automated testing.

1964

• Company celebrates 25th anniversary.
• Dave Packard elected chairman; Bill Hewlett elected president.
• Highly accurate HP 5060A cesium-beam time standard is introduced.
• Microwave spectrum analyzer is the first to make direct reading, calibrated analysis of individual signals within a frequency band.

1965

• HP enters the analytical instrumentation field with the acquisition of F&M Scientific Corporation, Avondale, Pennsylvania.
• Net Revenue: $165 million; Employees: 9,000.

1966

• HP Laboratories is formed, which would eventually become Agilent Labs. The company’s central research facility is one of the world’s leading electronics industry research centers.
• HP 2116A, the company’s first computer, is designed as a controller for test and measurement instruments.
• First all-solid-state component oscillator is introduced. Its small size, light weight and large screen make it easy to use in lab, field or production work.
• Company develops breakthrough GaAsP (gallium-arsenide-phosphide) light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which would prove useful in many applications, including alphanumeric displays for handheld devices and, eventually, stoplights and signage.

1967

• Boeblingen facility introduces a non-invasive fetal heart monitor that detects fetal distress during labor.
• Boeblingen plant also pioneers the concept of flexible working hours, an idea adopted at HP and Agilent manufacturing facilities around the world.
• Company engineers fly to 18 countries, with the atomic clocks they have developed, to synchronize international time standards. Eventually, the cesium-beam standard becomes the standard for international time.

1969

• Dave Packard appointed U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense (serves from 1969-71).
• First robotic sample injector for chromatography allows samples to be analyzed while system is unattended.

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1970s

Company continues its tradition of innovation. As this decade—marked by significant growth in earnings and employment—draws to a close, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard delegated day-to-day operating management of the company to John Young.

1970

• Automatic microwave network analyzer is introduced—an indispensable tool for the design and manufacture of microwave systems.
• Net Revenue: $365 million; Employees: 16,000.

1971

• Work with lasers produces a laser interferometer capable of measuring to millionths of an inch. The laser interferometer, known as “the jewel in Agilent’s crown,” is still the tool of choice in microchip manufacturing. Similar technology produces a laser instrument that becomes the first electronic surveying tool.

1973

• First chemical analysis system controlled by a microprocessor provides simplified operation and improved results.
• Logic analyzer becomes the tool of choice for engineers in the fast-growing field of digital electronics.

1975

• Creation of a standard interface simplifies instrument systems. The electronics industry adopts the HP-IB (interface bus) as an international standard to allow one or more instruments to connect easily to a computer. HP-IB and HP programming language make off-the-shelf test systems possible.

1977

• John Young is named president (appointed CEO in 1978).

1979

• First integrated microprocessor development system combines all the tools needed by hardware and software engineers.
• Development of fused-silica capillary columns simplifies chemical analysis and allows more compounds to be analyzed.
• New diode-array detector for chemical analysis provides rapid results by measuring multiple wavelengths of light simultaneously.

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1980s

In a decade of growing global presence and rapid economic change, the massive impact of computer technology on all product lines results not only in products with higher performance at lower cost, but also in radical changes in processes and the organization as a whole.

1980

• Net Revenue: $3 billion; Employees: 57,000.

1982

• Signal Data Network is the first to relay data fast enough to allow monitoring of many different hospital beds from one central station.

1985

• World’s first microprocessor-based network analyzer allows users to make fast and convenient magnitude or phase-response measurements in near real time across previously unheard-of frequency ranges.
• Net Revenue: $6.5 billion; Employees: 85,000.

1987

• Bill Hewlett retires as vice chairman of the board of directors.
• Walter Hewlett (son of Bill) and David Woodley Packard (son of Dave) are elected to the HP board of directors.

1988

• Digital multimeter makes high-frequency, high-accuracy, and high-resolution voltage measurements with one instrument.
• Analyzer able to measure terahertz transmission bandwidths is developed for use in optical telecommunications.

1989

• Company celebrates 50th anniversary.
• New atomic emission detector is first analytical instrument capable of detecting all of the elements (except helium) in gas chromatography.
• Introduction of TMSL (Test and Measurement Systems Language) solves the problem of having to write software to communicate with different instruments in a test system. TMSL initiates a new industry communication standard.

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1990s

The rate of change accelerates with Web-based information and applications becoming pervasive, competition intensifying and time-to-market cycles greatly reduced.

1990

• HP creates new test and measurement organization and appoints Ned Barnholt to lead it.
• Company enters the sample preparation field with its new super-critical fluid extractor.
• Net Revenue: $13.2 billion; Employees: 91,500.

1991

• Acquisition of Avantek broadens the offering of components for the worldwide communications market.

1992

• New atomic clock is introduced. It becomes the world’s most precise commercially available timekeeping device.
• Test set generates and detects data streams of up to 2.5 billion data bits per second, allowing telecommunications manufacturers to verify the performance of transmission equipment.
• Company introduces its first protein-sequencing system. The device allows for completely automated analysis of proteins and peptide samples.
• Optical spectrum analyzer proves to be an important product for use in the fast growing optical communications field.
• New modular oscilloscope is introduced, to be used in the design of high-speed digital electronics products.
• Introduction of amber and red-orange LEDs expand the range of LED applications in cars, traffic-control signals, and moving-message panels.
• Lewis E. Platt is named president and CEO.

1993

• AcceSS7 network monitoring system allows telecommunications customers to monitor all the elements on SS7 networks from a central location, increasing the efficiency of communications networks.
• HP 3D Capillary Electrophoresis system offers bioscientists leading-edge separation capabilities.
• Company enters the digital integrated-circuit product-test market with the HP 83000 system.

1994

• Revenues reach $25 billion.
• The introduction of the world’s brightest LED . Combining bright output, reliability and low power consumption, it replaces incandescent lamps in many new applications.
• Joint venture is established in China with Shanghai Analytical Instrument Factory.
• The company enters the DNA-analysis field to develop systems and products to be used in pharmaceutical research and the healthcare industry.
• The company marks its entry into the inorganics market with the first inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) that fits on a bench-top. Previously, chemists had to rely on large systems often installed in special laboratories run by specialist operators. The new system brings ICP-MS (for the determination of trace metals) into the routine laboratory environment.
• The Broadband Series Test System emerges as an industry standard. First to test ATM and broadband ISDN networks—and first to integrate testing of all layers of this complex technology—the system helps the industry prove that these new technologies can form the basis of an information highway for transporting voice, data, image and video over the same network.

1995

• Decades of experience in quartz technology and cesium time standards result in timing synchronization products that enable networks to function with higher levels of accuracy and reliability needed to deliver new digital services for voice, data and video communication.
• The industry’s first low-cost, high-speed small infrared transceiver allows wireless “point and shoot” data exchange in a wide range of portable computing applications such as phones, computers, printers, cash registers, ATMs, digital cameras and more.
• The HP 6890 series gas chromatograph system offers new levels of performance and push-button control, eases regulatory compliance, and provides a platform for the next generation of high-performance gas chromatography.
• The second-generation atomic-emission detector (AED) measures most elements at the part-per-trillion level and is the only commercially available AED system for use with gas chromatographs.
• The broadband service analyzer is a new portable tool for installing broadband networks. It represents a breakthrough in ease of use. The analyzer can set up complex tests to measure network quality with the touch of a button, making complex ATM technology accessible.

1996

• Co-founder David Packard dies on March 26.
• Introduction of the 1100 Series liquid chromatograph mass selective detector. The HP 1100 is designed to help chemists support faster product-development cycles (such as those for new pharmaceuticals) and improve the quality of analytical results.
• Creation of a network-timing synchronization for wired and wireless high-speed, digital networks eliminates many problems in transmitting data or images over telephone lines, such as dropped fax lines and modem disconnects, or in handing-off cellular calls from one base station to another, which can also result in dropped calls.

1997

• Acquisition of Heartstream Inc. adds the Heartstream Forerunner to medical products portfolio. The book-size automatic external defibrillator enables trained users such as flight attendants, police and first-aid teams to respond quickly and effectively to victims of sudden cardiac arrest.
• First generation lab-on-a-chip technology integrates a large number of chemical manipulations on a single chip, speeding up chemical analysis and significantly reducing cost and enabling digital information sharing.
• GeneArray Scanner, which can identify thousands of mutations in DNA captured on the surface of a microchip, substantially reduces analysis time.
• LumiLeds Lighting, a joint venture with Philips Lighting B.V., introduces a revolutionary package of signal components for the traffic-light industry.
• Net Revenue: $42.9 billion; Employees: 121,900.

1998

• The innovative HP 3070 Series 3 board-test system allows manufacturers to test printed circuit boards faster and more effectively than before.
• The HP 95000 HSM high-speed memory test system can be used for high-volume production testing of RDRAM chips. These chips operate at 800 MHz and offer memory-chip manufacturers the smallest footprint, lowest cost of test, and lowest-risk solution available.
• The Service Advisor, a low-cost, easy-to-use “tablet” test platform for service installers, accepts a variety of interchangeable modules for telecom testing services ranging from ADSL (asymmetrical digital subscriber line) to ATM transmission.
• The HP E6432A is a new VXI microwave synthesizer suited for a variety of automated-test applications, including field tests, avionics, communications systems and other manufacturing-test applications.
• The TestBook Wireless is an integrated diagnostic solution that offers technicians centralized access to diagnostic and customer-service information in the service bay or field, thereby increasing technicians’ productivity and reducing repair costs for customers.
• Collaboration begins with Caliper Technologies to develop lab-on-a-chip systems that integrates large number of chemical manipulations on a single chip, speeding up chemical analysis and significantly reducing lab costs.

1999

• HP announces strategic realignment to create an independent measurement company composed of test and measurement components, chemical analysis and medical businesses, and a computing and imaging company that includes all of HP’s computing, printing and imaging businesses.
• Agilent Technologies, the name of the new measurement company, is announced at historic brand-identity launch event in San Jose, Calif., announced by Agilent President and Chief Executive Officer Ned Barnholt.
• Initial public stock offering on Nov. 18, 1999, raises $2.1 billion and breaks records as the largest IPO in Silicon Valley history.
• Release of Agilent’s optical mouse sensor eliminates need for mouse pads, and allows for creation of a more precise and longer lasting computer mouse.

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2000s

Following its successful IPO in 1999, Agilent is now a fully independent company focusing on high-growth markets in communications, electronics and life sciences. Recognized as an industry leader, Agilent is first worldwide in the test and measurement market. In 2001, the company’s long-time healthcare business is acquired by Philips.

2000

• On June 2, 2000, Agilent Technologies becomes a fully independent company, following HP’s distribution of its Agilent shares to HP Shareholders.
• The introduction of Agilent’s Photonic Switching Platform accelerates the development of all-optical networks.
• Net Revenue: $10.8 billion; Employees: 47,000.

2001

• Co-founder William R. Hewlett dies on January 12.
• Acquisition of Objective System Integrators Inc. (OSI) enables Agilent to provide a complete solution to service providers who offer 3G wireless, optical, broadband Internet Protocol and voice over packet networks and services.
• Philips acquires Agilent Technologies’ Healthcare Solutions Group.
• Net Revenue: $8.4 billion; Employees: 37,000.

2002

• Agilent's first listing on Fortune magazine's list of the top 500 U.S. companies: No. 212.
• President and CEO Ned Barnholt named Chairman of the Board.
• Agilent acquires RedSwitch, adding expertise in InfiniBand and RapidIO to Agilent's product portfolio.
• Agilent ships over 100 million optical mouse sensor components worldwide.
• Net Revenue: $6 billion; Employees: 36,000.

2003

• The company’s first whole human genome on single microarray ships to gene expression customers for evaluation.
• Agilent introduces miniature camera modules for camera-enabled mobile phones.
• Agilent ships 200 millionth optical mouse sensor and 20 millionth FBAR duplexer.
• Net Revenue: $6.1 billion; Employees: 29,000.

2004

• Agilent's Visual Engineering Environment (VEE) Pro system-development software provides the interface to test communication equipment in the Mars Exploration Rovers.
• Collaborating with the Translational Genomics Research Institute, Agilent develops "Comparative Genomic Hybridization," a breakthrough application that helps identify and locate genetic alterations that contribute to cancer.
• Agilent acquires Silicon Genetics, a leading provider of software solutions for life science discovery. The addition of Silicon Genetics' genomics data analysis and management tools positions Agilent to become a market leader in life science informatics.
• Net Revenue: $7.2 billion; Employees: 28,000.

2005

• William P. (Bill) Sullivan is named Agilent President and CEO succeeding Edward W. (Ned) Barnholt.
• Agilent forms joint venture, Chengdu Instruments Division, to develop and manufacture test equipment for China and global market.
• Agilent establishes Agilent Technologies China Holding Company Ltd., based in Shanghai, to consolidate its entities in China.
• Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Silver Lake Partners acquire Agilent’s Semiconductor Products Group.
• Net Revenue: $5.1 billion; Employees: 21,000.

2006

• Major advances in mass spectrometry instrumentation expand the breadth of application and provide significant advances in performance.
• Yokogawa Analytical Systems becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Agilent Technologies.
• Agilent introduces the E4898A Bit Error Ratio Tester (BERT) that is the industry’s first to operate at speeds of up to 100 Gb/s.
• Agilent introduces the MXA signal analysis platform which is the industry’s fastest signal analyzer with the highest accuracy of any midrange analyzer.
  

About Company

When measurement matters, engineers, scientists, manufacturers, businesses, researchers, and government agencies rely on Agilent tools and solutions. From home entertainment to homeland security, from food safety to network reliability, and from communicating wirelessly to discovering the genetic basis of disease, Agilent provides the measurement capabilities that make our world more productive and a safer, healthier, more enjoyable place to live.

No other company offers the breadth and depth of measurement tools and expertise to meet the world’s critical requirements for electronic and bio-analytical measurement. With our long track record and our exclusive focus on measurement, Agilent is the global industry leader—by virtually any measure.