Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: A) and Varian, Inc. (NasdaqGS: VARI) today 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.

"The European Commission's decision is a key milestone toward completing the transaction that will bring our two firms together," said Agilent President and CEO Bill Sullivan. "We are pleased to have received conditional clearance from the Commission. 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.

"While we would like to have retained all of the businesses of both companies, these divestitures are not material. We remain very excited about bringing these two companies together to better serve worldwide bio-analytical customers with a broader portfolio of products and services."

Clearance by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is still pending, although Agilent and Varian do not expect the FTC to seek additional remedies in markets beyond those committed to for the European Commission.

Agilent's acquisition of Varian remains subject to other regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. Agilent expects the acquisition to close in early calendar 2010.

Source: Agilent