Agilent Sells XRD Business
Around 90 Agilent employees will join Rigaku, according to Paul Swepston, PhD, president of SCX SBU at Rigaku. He told IBO, “Agilent’s XRD group has a strong global presence in the small-molecule market, while Rigaku is dominant in the protein-crystallography and biological-SAXS market.” He said the purchase will grow Rigaku’s share in the single-crystal XRD market.
Tokyo, Japan and Santa Clara, CA 3/30/15—Japan-based scientific-instrument firm Rigaku has agreed to acquire Agilent Technologies’ XRD business for an undisclosed amount. The XRD business provides single-crystal x-ray instruments for chemical crystallography. “The acquisition of Agilent’s x-ray crystallography business represents a significant step in the expansion of our single-crystal x-ray business,” said Rigaku President and CEO Hikaru Shimura. ”Rigaku will combine its existing crystallography business with the Agilent business to create a new business unit.” Development and production will remain in Poland and Japan. The transaction is expected to be completed by May 1. Agilent acquired the business in 2010 when it purchased Varian (see IBO 7/31/09).
