Instrumentation industry development status

In the past few years, the annual growth rate of low and medium single digits has been the norm for leading global analytical and life science instrument companies. Restrictions on U.S. R&D spending, a weak European economy, and a slowdown in the growth of emerging markets are all challenges that these companies have seen.

In response, many companies have turned to trading decisions to drive their own growth. In 2014, mergers and acquisitions that occurred in the past few years will greatly change the status of the instrument industry. In 2013, the prominent method of life science instrument field performance was 'play acquisition', Goldman Sachs stock analyst Isaac Ro told customers in a report at the end of 2013.

It is worth noting that Thermo Fisher (hereinafter referred to as: Thermo Fisher) purchased Life Technologies for US$15.8 billion. If the transaction is completed as scheduled in April of this year, LifeTechnologies’ annual sales of US$4 billion will likely make the company Fly became the sales leader in the instrument industry.

And Thermo Fisher will also compete with Danaher for the top position in the instrument industry chart. Danaher has established a life sciences and diagnostics business through acquisitions, including the acquisition of Beckman Coulter in 2012. With the Beckman Coulter business on track, Danaher seems to have started searching for acquisition targets. At the December 2013 analyst meeting, Danaher CEO H. Lawrence Culp pointed out that the company still has US$8 billion in funds to use.

At the same time, Agilent’s growth in the life sciences and diagnostics business is largely driven by Dako, and Agilent acquired Dako in 2012. Agilent CEO William P. Sullivan told analysts that Agilent has continued to focus on the diagnostic and pharmaceutical markets, as well as the food and energy markets.

After achieving growth through acquisitions, Agilent has once again become smaller. Last September Agilent announced a spin-off plan. One company specializes in life sciences, diagnostics and applications markets and maintains Agilent as the company name. Another company specializes in electronic measurement business. The new company is called Keysight (Keysight Technologies). WilliamP.Sullivan said that in 2013, revenue from Agilent's electronic measurement business declined, but with the expected economic growth, we can see this business growth in the second half of 2014.

In these large mergers and acquisitions, companies have also been using more usual means to control costs and reshape businesses. A common phenomenon is that companies have reduced their manufacturing bases while implementing complementary acquisitions.

Many companies reorganized last year, and economic challenges forced instrument companies to continue to reduce their expectations for sales and earnings growth. Looking ahead, Isaac Ro, an analyst at Goldman Sachs, pointed out that the U.S. bipartisan budget agreement may unleash instrumental consumer demand in the U.S. market this year. He also believes that the European Horizon2020 research and innovation program helps to promote instrument sales.