Another technology giant is opening a development center in Israel. Last Thursday Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) Electronic Measurements Group president Patrick J. Byrne made a 24-hour visit to Israel. The centerpiece of the visit was to dedicate the company’s new R&D center at the company’s offices in Petah Tikva. The center’s first employee began working on Thursday.
Agilent has joined the long list of high-tech giants with R&D centers in Israel. Agilent’s center is important because electronic measuring equipment is barely known in Israel. Also, in contrast to other international companies, Agilent has not acquired a local start-up as the foundation for its R&D center, but has set it up from scratch.
In an exclusive interview, Byrne told “Globes”, “We’re starting with an R&D center, which will focus on customers. Later, we’ll probably support research carried out by Israeli research institutes (such as the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology). We realized that if we want organic growth, we must begin with a small project. We’re therefore starting with a small team, fewer than ten people whom we’ll hire in the coming months. We’ll then move forward step by step.”
Agilent was founded in late 1999 as a spin off of Hewlett Packard Company Ltd. (NYSE:HPQ), which began operating in the equipment measuring sector in the 1930s when its founders William Hewlett and David Packard began developing voice measuring equipment in a Palo Alto garage. Agilent is a leader in the field, posting $5.6 billion in sales in 2005, and has 21,000 employees. Byrne is responsible for the company’s core business, which accounted for $4.1 billion in sales last year, 80% of total sales. The company also develops biological and chemical measuring equipment.
Bryne said Agilent opened an Israeli R&D center because of developments in the communications industry and because of Israel’s centrality in the wireless equipment industry. “The wireless communications industry is undergoing convergence to IP. Technology such as WiMAX is based on this convergence, which is the future of mobility. There are many semiconductor companies in Israel working on solutions that will be the future of the mobile world. I see the convergence of market forces in Israel as something that enables us to be in the forefront of the semiconductor industry, solutions that will later go to equipment companies.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on October 8, 2006
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