INTRODUCTION
Agilent technologies is a spin-off from Hewlett-Packard (HP). For the first three to four months after the spin-off announcement, Agilent operated as “NewCo” while the team assessed over ten thousand names for the new company. Finally they ended up with „Agilent‟ partly as a way to remind themselves every day that speed was one of their core values and it was a constant reminder to them and their employees that this was the standard that they had to hold themselves to. The company revealed the new name, logo and tagline “Innovating the HP Way”. Seven months later, on November 1, 1999, Agilent began operating as a separate stand-alone company. On November 18, 1999, Agilent launched its initial public offering, which at $2.1 billion, was Silicon Valley‟s largest IPO to date. From a small garage in Palo Alto, California, to employees around the world serving customers in 120 countries, Agilent has a long history of innovation and leadership in the communications, electronics, semiconductor, test and measurement, life sciences and chemical analysis industries.
BIRTH OF AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES
Agilent's foundation was laid by two entrepreneurs Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in the form of Hewlett-Packard, a company started by them to provide test and measurement equipment. HP provides products, technologies, software solutions and services to consumers, small and medium sized businesses and large enterprises, including customers in the government, health and education sectors. Agilent Technologies was born as a spin-off of Hewlett-Packard Company. It announced a plan to create a separate company, made up of HP‟s businesses in Test and Measurement, Semiconductor Products, Healthcare Solutions, Chemical Analysis and the related portions of HP Laboratories.
REASONS FOR SPIN-OFF
In March 1999, Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced that it would spin off the components of the company that would become Agilent Technologies in order to achieve