Agilent and Varian granted permission to sell assets

Agilent announced this week that it has been granted conditional antitrust clearance from the European Commission regarding its proposed acquisition of Varian.

As part of the agreement, Agilent and Varian will now collaborate to sell the latter firm’s laboratory gas chromatography business and its triple quadrupole gas chromatography-mass spectrometry operations.

Varian’s inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry business will also be sold off, along with Agilent’s micro gas chromatography division.

The two organisations have engaged with potential buyers regarding the matter and revealed that the aggregate fiscal 2009 revenues of these four businesses came in at under $100 million (61.96 million pounds).

Agilent president and chief executive officer Bill Sullivan stated: “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.”

In other Agilent news, the firm revealed last week that it has launched a YouTube channel dedicated to providing customers with information on its products and services.