This article reads like a press release or a news article and may be largely based on routine coverage .(December 2019) |
A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(October 2024) |
Company type | Public |
---|---|
Industry | Conglomerate |
Founded |
|
Founders | |
Headquarters | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Steven Rales (chairman of the board) Mitchell Rales (chairman of the executive committee) Rainer Blair (president and CEO) |
Revenue | US$23.9 billion (2023) |
US$5.20 billion (2023) | |
US$4.76 billion (2023) | |
Total assets | US$84.5 billion (2023) |
Total equity | US$53.5 billion (2023) |
Number of employees | c. 63,000 (2023) |
Divisions | List of divisions |
Website | danaher |
Footnotes /references [1] |
Danaher Corporation is an American global conglomerate founded in 1984 by brothers Steven and Mitchell Rales. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the company designs, manufactures, and markets medical, industrial, and commercial products and services. [1] [2] [3] Danaher was among the first companies in North America to adopt Kaizen principles, a Japanese lean manufacturing philosophy of continuous improvement and efficiency. [4] [5] The company held $78.5 billion in assets as of 2024 [update] .
The company's origins go back to a Massachusetts real estate investment trust organized in 1969 as DMG, Inc. In 1978, DMG, Inc. was reorganized as a Florida corporation and changed its name to Diversified Mortgage Investors, Inc. DMG had been invested in retirement home developments when it was taken over by the Rales, and in 1984, the company adopted the name Danaher and reincorporated under the Delaware General Corporation Law. [2] [1] It was named after Danaher Creek in Western Montana, where the brothers conceptualized it while fishing. [6] [2] [7]
In June 1986, Danaher purchased Chicago Pneumatic (CP), which had merged in July 1984 with a sister company, the Jacobs Manufacturing Co. (Jacobs), and which had purchased Matco Tools Corp. (MTC) in April 1981.
In June 1987, Danaher sold CP while retaining Jacobs, including its Matco Tools Division. Jacobs' name was changed to Matco Tools Corp. In November 1991, the other divisions within Jacobs were established as separate operating companies. In January 1993, Danaher formed NMTC, Inc., which acquired a substantial portion of the assets of MTC, including the existing distributorship agreements of MTC.
Within two years of Danaher's founding in 1984, Danaher acquired 12 companies as part of a strategy to enter the manufacturing business. Therefore, in 1986, Danaher added Qualitrol to its instrumentation unit. [8] The unit also included Gilbarco Veeder-Root's underground fuel storage sensors, Dynapar's motion sensors [9] and Qualitrol's pressure and temperature measurement instruments, used on the electrical transformer industry. [10]
In 1990, Danaher acquired Easco Hand Tools Inc. [11] Danaher was selected as exclusive supplier of handtools for Sears. In 1994, Danaher acquired the tool company Armstrong Tools, the makers of tool brands Armstrong, Allen, and others. In 1995 Danaher acquired German components manufacturer Hengstler, a leading manufacturer of counters, printers, relays, and high-precision rotational sensors. Hengstler was Danaher's first acquisition on the European mainland, and the first operating company headquartered outside the United States. [12] Since 1999, Danaher has owned 100% of Hach, broadening the portfolio of chemical, mainly water and wastewater, analytics also with the German company Lange.
Danaher acquired Trojan Technologies, an environmental engineering firm, in 2004. [13]
UK-based West Instruments provides control and measurement instrumentation and services for the global industrial and process markets. German instrumentation manufacturer PMA was added to the Industrial Controls Group in 2005 and enhances the range of control and measurement instrumentation.
In July 2005, Danaher announced a definitive agreement to acquire Leica Microsystems. [14] Leica manufactures a broad range of products for numerous applications requiring microscopic imaging, measurement and analysis. It also offers management systems in the areas of Life Science including biotechnology and medicine, as well as the science of raw materials and industrial quality assurance.
In early 2007 Danaher acquired Australian Pathology Instrument and Engineering company Vision Systems Limited. [15] Also in 2007, Danaher made its largest acquisition to date, the purchase of Tektronix, Inc. for US$2.85 billion. [16] [17]
ChemTreat was acquired by Danaher in 2007 as well. [18]
In 2009 Danaher purchased the Analytical Technologies business unit of Canadian Life Sciences company MDS, Inc. for US$650 million. [19] In a separate, but related transaction, Danaher agreed with Life Technologies Corporation (Nasdaq: LIFE) to acquire the remaining 50% ownership position in AB SCIEX for US$450 million, leaving Danaher as outright owner of AB SCIEX and Molecular Devices. The aggregate purchase price for the combined transactions is $1.1 billion. [20]
In 2011, Danaher acquired Beckman Coulter [21] and sold Accu-sort to Datalogic.
In October 2012, Danaher and Cooper Industries agreed to sell their joint venture, Apex Tool Group, to Bain Capital for a fee of around $1.6 billion. [22] In December 2012 Danaher Corporation acquired Navman Wireless, a provider of on-demand fleet and asset management technology. [23]
In September 2014, Danaher announced its intention to buy Nobel Biocare for $2.2 billion. [24] In October 2014, Danaher Corp announced it would be combining its communications unit with NetScout Systems. [25] The action was completed in July 2015 [26]
In May 2015, Danaher announced the acquisition of Pall Corporation for $13.8 billion, [27] which was completed in August 2015. [28]
In June 2016, Danaher spun off several subsidiaries, including Matco and AMMCO-COATS, to create Fortive. [29] In September of the same year, the company announced it would acquire Cepheid for $4 billion (including debt). [30]
In October 2016, Danaher Corporation acquired Phenomenex for $700 million to expand its life sciences space. [31]
In October 2017, Danaher announced the acquisition of scientific informatics company ID Business Solutions Ltd. (IDBS). [32] It was announced that IDBS would become part of Danaher's Life Sciences platform. [33]
In 2017, Danaher recorded $18.3 billion in revenue. [34]
In March 2018, the business announced it would acquire Integrated DNA Technologies for an undisclosed price. [35]
In July 2018, Danaher announced its intention to spin off its $2.8 billion Dental segment into an independent publicly traded company. They named Amir Aghdaei, who at the time was President of Danaher's Dental Platform, to be President and CEO of the new company upon completion of the transaction. [36] The corporate spin-off was completed in December 2019, with the new company called Envista Holdings Corporation. [37]
In October 2019, Danaher announced it has signed an agreement to sell its biomolecular characterization, chromatography hardware and resins, microcarriers and particle validation standards businesses to Sartorius AG for approximately $750 million. The combined revenue of the businesses was approximately $140 million in 2018. [38]
In 2019, Danaher was ranked by Forbes as one of the best employers for diversity. [39]
On Monday, March 2, 2020, Dr. Stephen Hahn, the FDA's commissioner, said that the agency had taken actions to allow private labs and companies to begin making their own coronavirus tests in order to greatly expand the U.S. capacity to test for the virus. Hahn went on to note, "There will be—the estimates we're getting from industry right now, by the end of this week, close to a million tests will be able to be performed." [40] The following morning, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services noted that Dr. Hahn was referring to tests being produced by an outside manufacturer, Integrated DNA Technologies. IDT is a division of Danaher which was acquired in early 2019. [41]
In March 2020, Danaher acquired the biopharma business of the General Electric Life Sciences division for $21.4 billion and was named Cytiva. Danaher had to sell off part of its life sciences businesses to Sartorius to satisfy the Federal Trade Commission regulatory requirement for the acquisition. [42] Cytiva is a global provider of technologies and services related to the development, manufacture, and delivery of vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics to customers in organizations including academia, biotechnology, and drug manufacturing. [43] [44] [45] The Cytiva name stems from 'cyto' meaning 'cell' in Greek, and 'iva' a Latin suffix meaning 'doing' and 'capable of'. [46]
In May 2020, it was announced that Tom Joyce would retire as CEO of the company. He was replaced by Executive Vice President Rainier Blair on September 1, 2020. [47]
In September 2022, it was announced that Pall Life Sciences will be merging with Cytiva to create a new Biotechnology Group within Danaher. The merger was completed in May 2023. [48] [49] [50] As of May 2023, Cytiva employed more than 16,000 associates in over 40 countries. [51]
Also in September 2022, Danaher announced its intention to spin-off its Environmental & Applied Solutions segment in Q4 2023. [52] On February 8, 2023, Danaher announced that the new company is named Veralto Corporation and will be headed by Danaher Executive Vice President Jennifer Honeycutt as Veralto's President and CEO. [53] On September 30, Danaher announced the separation completion of Veralto and that Veralto will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on October 2 under the symbol "VLTO." [54]
On 28 August 2023, Danaher announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Abcam for approximately $5.7 billion at $24 per share in cash. [55] [56]
In April 2024, Precision Nanosystems was merged into Cytiva. [57] In June, The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted marketing approval to Danaher's Cepheid unit for a rapid test for hepatitis C. Using a blood sample from a fingertip, the rapid test detects the virus's RNA and delivers results in less than roughly an hour, as opposed to requiring a sample to be sent to a lab. [58]
Controversy has arisen regarding the pricing of test cartridges manufactured by Danaher's subsidiary, Cepheid. These cartridges are essential for detecting diseases such as COVID-19, HIV, and tuberculosis. Organizations such as Treatment Action Group and Doctors Without Borders have been asking Cepheid to lower the price of these tests since 2019.
On September 12, 2023, author and vlogger John Green released a video [59] highlighting these ethical concerns and calling on his community to reach out to Danaher. [60] [61] One week later, Cepheid and Danaher announced a 20% price reduction for their Xpert MTB/RIF TB test cartridge, from $9.98 to $7.97 in high TB-burden countries. However, their Xpert MTB/XDR test used to diagnose for drug-resistant TB, which is the deadliest form, remained unchanged at $14.90. [62] [63]
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) was an American multinational corporation that provided information technology (IT) services and professional services. On April 3, 2017, it merged with the Enterprise Services line of business of HP Enterprise to create DXC Technology.
AGCO Corporation is an American agricultural machinery manufacturer headquartered in Duluth, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1990. AGCO designs, produces and sells tractors, combines, foragers, hay tools, self-propelled sprayers, smart farming technologies, seeding equipment, and tillage equipment.
Beckman Coulter, Inc. is a Danaher Corporation company that develops, manufactures, and markets products relevant to biomedical testing. It operates in the industries of diagnostics and life sciences. The company was established in 1935 as National Technical Laboratories, and has become an international company through growth and acquisitions of other life sciences organizations.
NetScout Systems, Inc. is a provider of application performance management and network performance management products located in Westford, Massachusetts.
Pall Corporation, headquartered in Port Washington, New York and a wholly owned subsidiary of Danaher Corporation since 2015, is a global supplier of filtration, separations and purification products. Total revenues for fiscal year 2014 were $2.8 billion, with $103 million spent on R&D. Pall Corporation's business is split into two broad groups: Life Sciences (c.51%) and Industrial (c.49%). These business groups provide fluid management products and systems to customers in biotechnology, pharmaceutical, transfusion medicine, energy, electronics, municipal and industrial water purification, aerospace, transportation and broad industrial markets.
Yellow Corporation was an American transportation holding company headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas. Its subsidiaries included national less than truckload (LTL) carrier YRC Freight; regional LTL carriers New Penn, Holland, and Reddaway; and freight brokerage HNRY Logistics. From 2006 to February 2021, Yellow was known as YRC Worldwide.
W. W. Grainger, Inc., is an American Fortune 500 industrial supply company founded in 1927 in Chicago by William W. (Bill) Grainger. He founded the company to provide consumers with access to a consistent supply of motors. The company now serves more than 4.5 million customers worldwide with offerings such as motors, lighting, material handling, fasteners, plumbing, tools, and safety supplies, along with inventory management services and technical support. Revenue is generally from business-to-business sales rather than retail sales. Grainger serves its customers through a network of approximately 331 branches, online channels, and 34 distribution facilities.
AECOM is an American multinational infrastructure consulting firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
Applied Biosystems is one of various brands under the Life Technologies brand of Thermo Fisher Scientific corporation. The brand is focused on integrated systems for genetic analysis, which include computerized machines and the consumables used within them.
Sartorius AG is an international pharmaceutical and laboratory equipment supplier, covering the segments of Bioprocess Solutions and Lab Products & Services. In September 2021, Sartorius has been admitted to the DAX, Germany's largest stock market index. As a leading partner to the biopharmaceutical research and industry, Sartorius supports its customers in the development and production of biotech drugs and vaccines - from the initial idea in the laboratory to commercial production. Sartorius conducts its operating business in the two divisions Bioprocess Solutions and Lab Products&Services. The divisions bundle their respective businesses according to the same application areas and customer groups. The divisions share some of the infrastructure and central services.
Matco Tools, Inc. is an American professional tool distribution franchise for the automotive and other industries and is based in Stow, Ohio, United States. This includes over 13,000 different tools such as wrenches, screw drivers, gauges, and specialty tools. Matco produces their own line of toolboxes in their Jamestown, NY manufacturing plant. They manufacture and contract the production of many air tools, electric tools, hand tools and diagnostic tools. The company was founded by Bill Mattison and Joe Cornwell. They combined their names to form the company's name, Matco, in 1946 and began selling direct to professional mechanics in 1979. Originally Matco was the box manufacturing division of Mac Tools. However, they have not been associated with Mac since Matco Tools was formed in 1979. Former corporate owner Danaher spun off several subsidiaries, including Matco, in 2016 to create Fortive. Fortive, in turn, spun off Matco and other brands as Vontier in 2020.
Mitchell P. Rales is an American businessman and art collector. He co-founded Danaher Corporation with his brother Steven Rales in 1984 and the art museum Glenstone with his wife Emily Wei in 2006. Rales is also the chairman of ESAB, president of the National Gallery of Art, and the top limited partner of the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). His net worth was estimated by Forbes in mid-2024 to be $4.8 billion.
Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation, commonly known as Wabtec, is an American company formed by the merger of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) and MotivePower Industries Corporation in 1999. It is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Micro Focus International plc was a British multinational software and information technology business based in Newbury, Berkshire, England. The firm provided software and consultancy. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange until it was acquired by the Canadian software firm OpenText in January 2023.
Abcam Limited is a producer, distributor and seller of protein research tools operating worldwide from 13 locations with 1,800 employees of which 400 work in Research and Development (R&D). Abcam was listed on the Nasdaq and the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Danaher Corporation in 2023.
Steven M. Rales is an American businessman and film producer. He founded Danaher Corporation with his brother Mitchell Rales in 1984 and is chairman of the board. Rales also founded the film production company Indian Paintbrush in 2006, which works closely with filmmaker Wes Anderson. His work with Anderson has earned him three Academy Award nominations, winning Best Live Action Short Film for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023). Rales also owns the media distribution companies Janus Films and The Criterion Collection and owns a 20% stake in the National Basketball Association (NBA) team Indiana Pacers.
Radiometer is a Danish multinational company which develops, manufactures and markets solutions for blood sampling, blood gas analysis, transcutaneous monitoring, immunoassay testing and the related IT management systems. The company was founded in 1935 in Copenhagen, Denmark by Børge Aagaard Nielsen and Carl Schrøder. It has over 3,200 employees and direct representation in more than 32 countries. Corporate headquarters remain in Copenhagen.
Cepheid is an American molecular diagnostics company that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Danaher Corporation. Its systems automate traditional nucleic acid tests. The tests can be used to identify and analyze pathogens and genetic disorders. Cepheid sells clinical tests for healthcare-associated infections, infectious diseases, sexual health, oncology and genetics.
Fortive Corporation is an American industrial technology conglomerate company headquartered in Everett, Washington. The company specializes in providing essential technologies for connected workflow solutions; designing, developing, manufacturing and distributing professional and engineered products, software and services. Their products and services are split into three strategic segments; Intelligent Operating Solutions, Precision Technologies, and Advanced Healthcare Solutions. As of December 2022, Fortive has over 18,000 employees in 60 countries worldwide.
Veritas Capital Fund Management, L.L.C. is a New York–based private-equity firm founded in 1992 that invests in companies providing critical products and services, primarily technology-enabled products and services, to government and commercial customers worldwide. The firm's first fund closed in 1998. They closed an eighth flagship fund in 2022; in all, Veritas has approximately $45 billion of assets under management. Veritas is led by Ramzi Musallam, the firm's Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner.