Agilent paying $1.5 billion to acquire Varian
Scientific equipment firm has presence in Mass.
NEW YORK - Agilent Technologies Inc., the world’s biggest maker of scientific-testing equipment, agreed to buy Varian Inc. for $1.5 billion to expand its portfolio of instruments.
Varian has more than a dozen significant manufacturing plants around the world, including one in Lexington, Mass., that makes vacuum pumps and related equipment. The firm has 240 employees at the location, according to a technology directory published by Mass High Tech in Boston. Varian, however, became a separate company from Gloucester, Mass.-based Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates Inc. a decade ago when Varian Associates split into three.
Varian shareholders will receive $52 a share, about 35 percent more than the closing price on Friday, Agilent said. Both companies’ boards have approved the transaction, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Agilent said in a statement yesterday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is advising Varian.
The purchase will expand Agilent’s product line into atomic and molecular spectroscopy and broaden its offerings in life sciences, the environment, materials, and energy, the company said. Agilent reported a loss in the second period, the first unprofitable quarter since 2003. Revenue dropped for the past two quarters.
“This acquisition is a major step in Agilent’s transformation into a leading bio-analytical measurement company,’’ Agilent chief executive Bill Sullivan said in the statement.
Varian has the second-largest market share in nuclear magnetic resonance, which gives Agilent access to a $1 billion market, Derik de Bruin, an analyst at UBS Securities LLC in New York, wrote in a note to investors yesterday.
“This deal makes strategic sense as there is limited product overlap between the two companies,’’ de Bruin said in the note. He declined to comment further. His rating and price target for Varian are under review, according to the note, and he doesn’t own the shares.
In March, Agilent said it would cut 2,700 jobs, more than a 10th of the total, as it restructures the electronic-measurement business.
Agilent rose 39 cents to $22.66 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday. The stock gained 45 percent this year. Varian climbed $11.41, or 29 percent, to $50.61 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading, the steepest increase since at least March 1999.
Its shares had advanced 17 percent this year through Friday.
Globe reporter Todd Wallack contributed to this report. 
