Company History Timeline — 2010s

2010

• Agilent purchases Varian, Inc., the largest acquisition to date in the company's history. The majority of Varian's product lines join Agilent's Chemical Analysis Group (CAG), while the Life Sciences Group (LSG) gains key businesses, including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).

• Agilent and the National Center for Food Safety and Technology (NCFST) enter into a collaboration to develop new scientific methods for analyzing food borne illnesses and food quality. As a part of this effort, Agilent provides NCFST with an extensive assortment of the latest analytical chemistry and life science instrumentation, along with training and applications support.

• Net revenue: $5.4 billion. Employees: 18,500.

2011

• Agilent joins in a collaborative effort with the newly formed Synthetic Biology Institute at UC Berkeley as its first Industry Member.

• China becomes the first country outside the United States to generate more than $1 billion in orders for Agilent during a single year.

2012

• Agilent's board of directors declares the first quarterly cash dividend in the company's history-10 cents per share.

• Agilent joins forces with the University of California at Davis and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to initiate the 100,000 Genome Project, a massive five-year effort to improve food safety.

• Dako, a cancer diagnostics company headquartered in Denmark, becomes the largest acquisition in Agilent's history. The acquisition enables Agilent to grow its diagnostics business and expand its role in life sciences. About 1,000 Dako employees join Agilent.

2013

• On Sept. 19, Agilent announces the company will separate into two public companies, one comprising the life sciences, diagnostics and applied markets (LDA) businesses, which will retain the Agilent name, and the second consisting of the electronic measurement (EM) business.

2014

• Agilent announces its CEO transition plan in September 2014 with William P. (Bill) Sullivan's retirement next year, naming Mike McMullen as CEO-elect for March 2015.

• Agilent completes the spinoff of its former electronic measurement business—Keysight Technologies-on Nov. 1. Keysight begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Nov. 3.

• Agilent creates the CrossLab Group, providing customers a unique capability that combines innovative laboratory services and consumables competencies to elevate support for the entire lab by delivering insight that drives improved economic, operating, and scientific outcomes.

2015

• In parallel with the approval of KEYTRUDA, the FDA gives pre-market approval to Agilent’s PD-L1 IHC 22C3 pharmDx kit, the first predictive companion diagnostic for use in detecting PD-L1, an immune-related biomarker expressed on some tumor cells.

• Agilent acquires Seahorse Bioscience, an industry leader in providing instruments and assay kits for cell analysis.

• Agilent introduces the industry's most sensitive GC/MSD system – the Agilent 5977B High Efficiency Source (HES) GC/MSD system, a tandem gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer that delivers lower limits of detection than any other instrument in its class.

• Agilent launches the 6470 Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer engineered to be Agilent's most robust triple quadrupole system ever, The 6470 delivers attogram-level sensitivity and accurate quantitation with up to six orders of linear dynamic range.

• Agilent introduces the new 6545 Q-TOF Mass Spectrometry system. It includes advances in hardware and software that make it both more reliable and easier to use for trace-level analysis of small-molecule compounds in applications such as food safety, environmental testing, forensic toxicology and pharmaceuticals.

• Mike McMullen is elected Agilent CEO by the board of directors, becoming the third president and CEO in the company's history..

• Net revenue: $4.04 billion. Employees: 12,000.

2016

• Agilent unveiled transformational technology for Gas Chromatography with the Intuvo 9000 GC System. Click-and-run connections eliminate ferrules, guard-chip technology extends column life, and the trim-free column eliminates retention time shifts due to column trimming maintenance.

• Agilent introduces a new Atomic Spectroscopy Platform for multiple analytical applications delivering greater speed and precision than any other ICP-OES system. The 5110 ICP-OES will enable scientists to perform faster, more precise ICP-OES analysis in food, environmental and pharmaceutical testing as well as for mining and industrial applications.

• Agilent introduces InfinityLab, a product family of liquid chromatography instruments, columns and supplies. A key element is the new Agilent 1260 Infinity II liquid chromatography system, which brings high-end technology from Agilent's flagship 1290 Infinity II LC into the company's core platform.

2017

• Agilent acquires Cobalt Light System, accelerating Agilent's entry into the high-growth Raman Spectroscopy Market and expanding its value proposition for pharmaceutical and biopharma customers.

• Agilent introduces the GC/Q-TOF System - a third-generation instrument enabling greater exploration of unknown chemical samples.

• Agilent expands its portfolio of scientific instruments with the new research-grade 6495B Triple Quadrupole LC/MS system that provides even greater sensitivity and accuracy for applications such as peptide quantitation, food safety, environmental testing, clinical research and forensic toxicology.

• Agilent broadens its biopharma portfolio with the AdvanceBio LC/Q-TOF MS 6545XT system.

2018

• Agilent acquires privately held Advanced Analytical Technologies, Inc., a provider of capillary electrophoresis-based (CE) solutions for fully automated analysis of a range of molecules for $250 million in cash. This acquisition enhances Agilent's existing expertise and technology, while giving customers a more comprehensive set of solutions.

• Agilent acquires Ireland-based Luxcel Biosciences, a developer of real-time fluorescence plate-reader based in vitro cell assay kits. This acquisition expands Agilent's cell analysis portfolio with the addition of easy-to-use assay kits that are compatible with industry standard plate-readers.

2019

• In partnership with Merck & Co., Agilent gains approval of its first PD-L1 companion diagnostic in China. The assay identifies patients with non-small cell lung cancer who may benefit from KEYTRUDA, a therapy manufactured by Merck.

• Agilent expands its leadership position in cell analysis with the acquisition of BioTek, a global leader in the design and manufacture of plate-readers and imaging systems.

• Agilent introduces the InfinityLab LC/MSD iQ System, which gives chemists and chromatographers greater capabilities; a multimode real-time cell analyzer, the first of its kind to combine the best of non-invasive biosensor measurement with live cell imaging; and new ICP-OES systems with smart capabilities that provide deeper insights for labs in the chemicals, energy, food, and materials markets.