Rigaku to Acquire Agilent’s X-Ray Diffraction Business
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Rigaku Corp. and Agilent Technologies Inc. has announced an agreement for Rigaku, a privately held scientific instrumentation company headquartered in Tokyo, to acquire Agilent’s X-ray diffraction (XRD) business.
Formerly known as Oxford Diffraction within Varian when that company was acquired by Agilent in 2010, the XRD group is a key manufacturer of single-crystal X-ray instruments for the global chemical crystallography market.
“The acquisition of Agilent’s X-ray crystallography business represents a significant step in the expansion of our single-crystal X-ray business,” said Hikaru Shimura, Rigaku President and CEO. “By combining Agilent’s XRD business with Rigaku’s expertise in protein crystallography, we will be able to leverage the best technologies from both groups to provide our current and future customers with world-class solutions for single-crystal analysis.”
“This agreement is a positive development for the XRD business,” said Patrick Kaltenbach, President, Agilent Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group. “I am confident that Rigaku will provide excellent support to grow the XRD business with complementary technology and the expertise of a highly talented team.”
Rigaku plans to combine XRD with its existing crystallography business to form a new business unit. XRD products will continue to be developed and produced at existing factories in Poland and Japan.
The transaction is expected to be final May 1, 2015, subject to local laws and customary closing conditions. No financial terms were disclosed.
