Agilent Technologies to purchase Varian

Agilent Technologies and Varian have signed a definitive agreement that will see the former purchase the latter in an all-cash offer.

In a statement, the company explained that it will pay $52 (31.68 pounds) in cash per share of common stock for the firm, in a move that represents a premium of roughly 35 per cent to the firm’s closing price on July 24th 2009.

Agilent’s chief executive and president Bill Sullivan said that the acquisition, which has been unanimously approved by both companies’ boards of directors, is a "major step" in the company’s aim to become a leading bioanalytical measurement firm.

He added: "While we continue to be a world leader in electronic measurement, our biggest opportunities for future growth are in bio-analytical measurement."

Earlier this month, the company announced that scientists using an Agilent custom-designed comparative genomic hybridisation array sequenced the whole gene map of a Korean male.