SWOT Analysis of Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies (NYSE: A), or Agilent, is a global company that designs and manufactures equipment for measurement and evaluation. Agilent Technologies has a stock market capitalization of over 15 billion USD and the company’s headquarters are in Santa Clara, California, in the Silicon Valley region.

Many of Agilent’s predecessor product lines were developed by Hewlett-Packard, the American computing company founded in 1939. In 1999, the product lines not directly connected with computers, storage, and imaging were grouped into a separate company (Agilent), the stock of which was offered to the public in an initial public offering. The Agilent IPO may have been the largest in the history of Silicon Valley at the time.

The company thus created in 1999 was an $8 billion company with about 47,000 employees, manufacturing scientific instruments, semiconductors, optical networking devices, and electronic test equipment for telecom and wireless R&D and production.
Agilent Technologies SWOT Analysis

Strengths

• Agilent Technologies has a robust research and development arm, Agilent Laboratories or Agilent Labs, with active research in numerous areas including MEMS, nanotechnology, and life sciences

• HP labs were divided into two central labs when Agilent was carved out of HP in 1999. Both laboratories have had distinct success throughout the years including development in X-ray technology, traffic monitoring, and liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry.

• Agilent Technologies has an active investment group, Agilent Ventures, which invests in high-tech startup companies. Investments include MEMX, Infinera, and Telasics.

• Agilent has generated and offers comprehensive chemical databases. In January 2009 it announced the availability of a pesticide database covering 1600 compounds, with accurate mass information for each.

Weaknesses

• Agilent has a subtle assets ratio of 23% which is not good for the company in longer run.