Keysight Data

Courtesy of Schwab (notice that the San Jose Biz Journal has yet to run a story re this 'storied' company

Keysight Technologies at a Glance

Who We Are
The world leader in electronic test and measurement

Milestones

Sept. 19, 2013 – Agilent announced plans to separate into two publicly traded companies through a tax-free spinoff of its electronic measurement company

Jan. 7, 2014 – Keysight Technologies revealed as name of new electronic measurement company

Aug. 1, 2014 – Keysight to become legal entity, wholly-owned subsidiary of Agilent

November 2014 – Keysight to separate from Agilent; stock distributed

Naming Background

Name:
The name Keysight is derived from two English words: key, meaning indispensable or essential, a means of access; and insight, meaning the power of seeing, having vision and perception. The name connotes seeing what others cannot, having the critical or key insight to understand and unlock the changing technology landscape.

Tagline:
“Unlocking measurement insights for 75 years” commemorates the birth of the original Hewlett-Packard Company, from which Agilent’s electronic measurement business originated.

Logo:
Keysight’s symbol is a stylized waveform – the shape and form of a common electrical signal. The symbol represents the company’s 100 percent focus on electronic measurement once it separates from Agilent Technologies, as well as a tribute to its legacy that dates back to the beginning of the electronic measurement industry as the original Hewlett Packard Company.

Company colors:
The corporate signature’s colors are Keysight Red and Keysight Gray.

Fast Facts

FY13 revenues forecast *: U.S. $2.9 billion

Number of Employees: 9,500

President and CEO: Ron Nersesian

Headquarters: Santa Rosa, Calif.

Key Markets and Rankings:

Keysight holds the #1 position in its industry segments of

Communications (wireless data)

Aerospace and defense

Industrial, computers and semiconductors

Website:

www.keysight.com

*FY13 numbers are estimates based on the midpoints of company guidance provided on Aug. 14, 2013. These are not confirmation of guidance.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20140107005547/en/

Source: Agilent Technologies Inc.

Agilent Technologies Inc.
Amy Flores, +1 408-345-8194
amy_flores@agilent.com

Feedback outside

From an long-term Intel employee:

Tarri wrote: "The first thing that popped into my head before reading your blog is "Keystone." I know you and you have nothing to do with oil and gas but the word Keysight doesn't sound tech. It has the unfortunate transition of an 's' and includes a 't' in the second syllable. Where does it go when the market ascribes a short moniker? Key Tech would have been better. Short and no where to go with it."

Feedback from the "troops"

From a long-term HP, then Agilent, and now Keysight employee (retiree recently)... (emphasis added by CH)

Hi Guys,

The main subject for the meeting was the "new" company that would be comprised of Agilent's Test and Measurement group.  After the change, Agilent will consist of just the Life Sciences products.  "KeySight" corp will be the current EMG group (that would be us)

Jay Alexander presented the story, with Hamish ?? also speaking.  I laughed when I heard the new corp. name.  I thought they said KeyLite, - which sounded to me to be a beer name!  Anyway it comes with a new logo which looks like a scope trace, -not bad for us.

As far as retiree benefits, we will be covered by KeySight.  They foresee no changes in 2014 and 2015, because they will be totally occupied getting the new corp. going.  They had no idea what might happen in 2016.

The whole thing appears to have been driven by the Life Sciences group.  Evidently they could not understand our business.  Maybe they want to stick to "drug testing"!!  They think there will be higher growth opportunities in Life Sciences.  Jay mentioned that the scopes part of Danaher is estimated to be less than 600M.  We (CSprings) have grown between x2 and x3 times between 2002 and 2013.  Rohde and Schwartz is a larger competitor to KeySight than is Danaher.  EMG as a whole has been flat.

Corp HQ will be in Santa Rosa.  Bob Witte runs the KeySight part of Agilent Labs.

Regarding the schedule of the split, I understood that KeySight will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Agilent this year.  Next year KeySight will be separated.

I hope you find this interesting.

Santa Rosa Biz Journal re Keysight

Tuesday, January 7, 2014, 9:48 am

Santa Rosa-based Agilent division renamed Keysight

Business Journal Staff Report   Emphasis added by InnovaScapes

SANTA CLARA — Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced the name of the Santa Rosa-based electronic measurement company it expects to spin off in early November as Keysight Technologies.

The name Keysight conveys the ability to see what others cannot, offering the critical or key insights to understand and unlock the changing technology landscape, the company said. The new company’s tagline, “unlocking measurement insights for 75 years,” commemorates the 1939 birth of the original Hewlett-Packard Company, from which Keysight originated.

“Keysight reflects our rich heritage — a direct line from both Hewlett-Packard’s standards of integrity and innovation and Agilent’s premier measurement business,” said Ron Nersesian, president and chief executive officer of Keysight.

“This name captures the spirit of our organization — innovative, insightful and forward-looking,” said Mr. Nersesian, who added, “While Keysight is built on ‘firsts’ dating back to the birth of Silicon Valley, as a new company we are committed to bringing our customers a new generation of firsts — unlocking insights for them so they can in turn bring a new generation of technologies into the world.”

Executives reviewed thousands of potential company names, analyzing them in six different languages, according to Mr. Nersesian. Employees helped whittle the list down to seven, and marketing experts made the final call. He declined to mention the runners up.

Keysight does not yet have a stock symbol. That and the exchange it’ll be traded on are set to be revealed in March. The process is scheduled to be complete in early November.

“We’re all really excited, rolling out the new name all over the world,” said Mr. Nersesian. “The celebrations started early this morning and will go on all day.”

Keysight will concentrate solely on the electronic measurement industry, focusing on its test and measurement customers. The business, currently part of Agilent, is the world leader in test and measurement, holding the number one position in its industry segments of wireless data ecosystem; aerospace and defense; and industrial, computers and semiconductors. The new company will include the entire portfolio of Agilent electronic measurement products and the largest sales and support team in the test and measurement industry.

Expected to become a standalone company in early November, Keysight (keysight.com) will be headquartered in Santa Rosa and have approximately 9,500 employees in 30 countries.

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A, agilent.com) is the world’s premier measurement company and a technology leader in chemical analysis, life sciences, diagnostics, electronics and communications. The company’s 20,600 employees serve customers in more than 100 countries. Agilent had revenues of $6.8 billion in fiscal 2013.

On Sept. 19, Agilent announced plans to separate into two publicly traded companies through a tax-free spinoff of its electronic measurement business. The new company is named Keysight Technologies, Inc. The separation is expected to be completed in early November 2014.

See original story at http://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/85683/agilent-to-be-renamed-keysight-technologies/ 

HP "Spawned" Biz's

Someone asked re the last post, just what did HP Test and Measurement fund and spawn.

Here is my version:

First acquisition, in 1958, was a majority interest in Moseley recorders.  This was 55 years ago in November 2013, and HP's current website credits this (correctly) as the beginning of HP's imaging and printing business.

Second acquisition, in 1961, was Sanborn Medical.  This became a big business for HP for quite awhile, eventually with some key products including pioneering ultrasound imaging.  Sold to Philips from the Agilent team circa 2002.

Third acquisition, HP Associates, was formed in 1961 as a joint venture, bought outright in 1966.  This group, an early "Silicon Valley" semiconductor company, never got much prominence in the trade press, but its evolution was huge in impact.  Some 90% of all gallium arsenide communications devices (think satellite transmission for the worldwide communications infrastructure) and about 80% of all LEDs (Light-Emitting Diodes, those little red lights on your old VCR, or your newer auto taillights, and NOW the White Light headlights on most new cars) were built by HP for the world from 1965 through 2005 when this was all sold to Philips and a private equity firm.

Fourth acquisition:  F and M Scientific, an analytical chemistry measurement company (think Beckman competitor) which became the basis for the Life Sciences work that is the cornerstone for the "new" Agilent Technologies.

Fifth venture, Scientific Computing, was started with an acquisition in 1965 of a smallUnion Carbide group.  This became the HP 2116, morphed into the HP 9100, and then the HP 35 handheld calculator.  Arguably some of the world's mod pioneering computer architectures and successful products of any company, measured in volume, users, and distribution if not revenue.  The Computer History Museum, and most computer historians, are loathe to consider this branch very important, which is a total pity and misreading of true computer history (howze that for a personal opinion?).

Sixth venture, Business Computing, was started with a morphed HP 2116 into the HP 3000.  This marked the start of a great adventure in "real computing" culminating with the Spectrum family under Birnbaum and team.  Eventually, before the Dick Hackborn / Wim Roelandts shoot-out over the hegemony of enterprise vs. PCs, HP had virtually wrestled IBM to a tie in enterprise computing, a position of rough parity that exists to this day.  HP machines (via the Tandem and DEC acquisitions through Compaq) are the backbone of much of the free world's banking systems among other things.

The EDS acquisition is not included in Greg's analysis, because it happened after the Agilent split.

So--on balance, what's the scorecard?  Hummn, what today is a $5 billion business (Test and Measurement for the new Keysight) has funded, e.g. spawned, well over $150 billion in annual revenues, which total some $1.5 trillion dollars since Agilent split from HP.  That's a lot of moola.

Can't wait to see what they do next

T & M history, future

Greg Peters, VP Microwave Group for Keysight Technologies, nee Agilent, nee HP, has calculated that the Test and Measurement Group of Hewlett-Packard (the ORIGINAL goal for you history buffs) spawned six other 'companies' or fields of interest that have since spun out.

Greg says "we've funded other industries for 55 years now" and it'll be nice to be focused FINALLY

Keysight will be a "pure play" -- all too rare these days.  Danaher, three times as large as Agilent, and five times as large as the fledgling Keysight, is a conglomerate.  Their T*M group has a laughable line in its description (in red):
Our Test & Measurement segment is a leading, global provider of electronic measurement instruments and monitoring, management and optimization tools for communications and enterprise networks and related services. Our products are used in the design, development, manufacture, installation, deployment and operation of electronics equipment and communications networks and services. Customers for our products and services include manufacturers of electronic instruments; service, installation and maintenance professionals; network equipment manufacturers who design, develop, manufacture and install network equipment and service providers who implement, maintain and manage communications networks and services. Also included in our Test and Measurement segment are our mobile tool and wheel service businesses.

Wheel Services?  

I've recently been working with Arnold Thackray, the noted technology historian who founded the Chemical Heritage Foundation and wrote the definitive work about Arnold Beckman.  He notes that Beckman was even more peripatetic than Dave Packard (the two were long-time competitors and in actuality pretty good friends).  Beckman managed to go in a zillion directions, including the world's most successful computers in the 1950s and the funding of Shockley Labs, which was accidentally moved to Palo Alto from Pasadena when Shockley's mother became quite ill.

Thackray's view mirrors Greg Peters' view (and mine as well) that the tools these companies began with have never been given their proper due for their role in creating the modern world we inhabit, whether it be from medical diagnostics or food safety, communications backbone or transport.  Maybe Keysight will be the vehicle to give voice to that infrastructural contribution.

Keysight Technologies

FINALLY, we have the new name for the Agilent Test and Measurement business.

Here, unexpurgated, is the announcement sent this morning to EMG employees at Agilent, sent by new CEO Ron Nerssesian