Agilent
Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) and Varian, Inc. (NasdaqGS:VARI) today announced
that they have been granted conditional antitrust clearance from the European
Commission for Agilent’s proposed acquisition of Varian.
As part of the European Commission’s clearance decision, Agilent and
Varian have committed to sell:
- Varian’s laboratory gas chromatography (GC) business;
- Varian’s triple quadrupole gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS
triple quad) business;
- Varian’s inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) business;
and,
- Agilent’s micro gas chromatography (micro GC) business.
Agilent and Varian have initiated a process for selling these businesses,
and have already engaged with a number of interested purchasers. The aggregate
fiscal 2009 revenues of these four businesses were under $100 million.
“The European Commission’s decision is a key milestone toward completing
the transaction that will bring our two firms together,” said Agilent
President and CEO Bill Sullivan. “We are pleased to have received conditional
clearance from the Commission. We are committed to ensuring that each of these
four businesses is successfully divested as a viable, competitive business and
that all customers remain fully supported during and beyond the divestiture
process.
“While we would like to have retained all of the businesses of both companies,
these divestitures are not material. We remain very excited about bringing these
two companies together to better serve worldwide bio-analytical customers with
a broader portfolio of products and services.”
Clearance by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is still pending, although
Agilent and Varian do not expect the FTC to seek additional remedies in markets
beyond those committed to for the European Commission.
Agilent’s acquisition of Varian remains subject to other regulatory approvals
and customary closing conditions. Agilent expects the acquisition to close in
early calendar 2010.