SemiOT: Agilent is not a HP "start-up", it is a spin off of a very profitable division. HP management decided to try an split the company roughly into the PC biz (PC's, servers and printer) and the Test and Measurement biz. (Oscilloscope, Logic analyzers, Digital meters, Spectrum and Network analyzers, etc.)
Along with the T&M biz., Agilent has a very strong semiconductor group:
Agilent aims for higher semiconductor profile
By Mark LaPedus, Semiconductor Business News
Oct 13, 2000 (3:01 PM)
URL: semibiznews.com
SAN JOSE -- Hoping to raise its profile in the chip business, the Semiconductor Products Group of Agilent Technologies Inc. here in briefings with the press and analysts outlined the company's strategy to expand its already large presence in the communications IC market.
At its first ever Semiconductor Products Summit here on Thursday, Agilent's chip group announced a reorganization, a new line of products and technologies, and a bold fab-capacity expansion program, reportedly including a plan to build a new 6-inch wafer plant for gallium-arsenide (GaAs) devices.
The announcements are aimed to propel Agilent's semiconductor operation into the limelight. Agilent's roots in semiconductors can be traced to back the 1960s or even earlier, when it was buried inside Hewlett-Packard Co.'s test and measurement operations.
But Agilent's IC efforts, along with its test and measurement business, were recently overshadowed by HP's vast portfolio of consumer-oriented products, like PCs, printers, midrange computers, and workstations. However, in a corporatewide shakeup last year, HP decided to spin off its test and measurement and communications component operations into an independent company, called Agilent.
It's a little-known fact, but Agilent's total IC sales were $1.72 billion in 1999, up from $1.57 billion in 1998. Analysts believe that the chip operation could show stronger growth of around 20% in 2000. .....
FWIW, HP would be buying semiconductors from Agilent, not the other way around.
Jim |
