Agilent Technologies’ Acquisition of Varian, Inc. Cleared by European Commission

Agilent Technologies and Varian Inc 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.