Agilent to Divest Four Varian Businesses
Not surprisingly, Varian or Agilent are among the top two vendors in each market in which a divestiture has been requested. Markets in which both companies offer products for which divestitures were not required include LC consumables, single and triple quadrupole MS, and UV-Visible spectroscopy. Varian has extended the end date of its merger agreement with Agilent by 90 days to April 26.
Santa Clara, CA and Palo Alto, CA 1/21/10; Brussels, Belgium 1/21/10—Agilent Technologies announced that the European Commission has granted conditional antitrust clearance for its acquisition of Varian. In connection with the clearance, Agilent has agreed to divest four Varian businesses: laboratory GC, triple quadrupole GC-MS, inductively coupled plasma–MS and micro GC. Agilent has initiated the process of selling the businesses, which had aggregate fiscal 2009 revenues of less than $100 million. “While we would like to have retained all of the businesses of both companies, these divestitures are not material,” stated Agilent President and CEO Bill Sullivan. Clearance by the US Federal Trade Commission is still pending, but Agilent does not expect additional remedies to be required. Agilent expects the transaction to close in early 2010.
