Keysight

Last updated
Keysight Technologies, Inc.
Company type Public
Industry
  • Electronics
PredecessorsElectronic test and measurement division of HP and later Agilent Technologies
Founded2014;10 years ago (2014)
Headquarters Santa Rosa, California, U.S. [1]
Key people
Ron Nersesian (chairman)
Satish Dhanasekaran (CEO & president) [2]
Products
  • Electronic measurement equipment
RevenueIncrease2.svg US$5.46 billion (2023)
Increase2.svgUS$1.36 billion (2023)
Decrease2.svgUS$1.06 billion (2023)
Total assets Increase2.svgUS$8.68 billion (2023)
Total equity Increase2.svgUS$4.65 billion (2023)
Number of employees
c.14,900 (2023)
Divisions
  • PathWave Design
  • PathWave Test
  • oscilloscopes
  • vector network analyzers
  • modular instruments
  • field instruments
  • bench instruments
Website keysight.com
Footnotes /references
Financials as of October 31,2023. [3]

Keysight Technologies, Inc. is an American company that manufactures electronics test and measurement equipment and software. The name is a blend of key and insight. [2] [4] The company was formed as a spin-off of Agilent Technologies, which inherited and rebranded the test and measurement product lines developed and produced from the late 1960s to the turn of the millennium by Hewlett-Packard's Test & Measurement division.

Contents

Products

Keysight's products include hardware and software for benchtop, modular, and field instruments. [5] Instruments include oscilloscopes, multimeters, logic analyzers, signal generators, spectrum analyzers, vector network analyzers, atomic force microscopes (AFM), automated optical inspection, automated X-ray inspection (5DX), in-circuit testers, power supplies, tunable lasers, optical power meters, wavelength-meters, electro-optic converters, optical modulation analyzers and handheld tools. [6] In addition, it produces electronic design automation (EDA) software (EEsof division). [7] It mainly serves the telecommunications, aerospace/defense, industrial, computer, and semiconductor industries. [8]

History

Acquisitions

Keysight acquired British electronic measurement instrument maker Anite in 2015 for £388 million ($607 million). [9] In 2017, Keysight acquired data technology company Ixia for about $1.6 billion in cash. [10] [11] The company acquired British software testing company Eggplant Software from Carlyle Group for $330 million in 2020. [12] In 2023, the company acquired France-based ESI Group for approximately $1 billion. [13] In 2024, Keysight outbid Viavi Solutions to acquire British telecommunications testing company Spirent for $1.5 billion. [14]

Controversies

The 2017 Tubbs wildfire incinerated two buildings on the headquarters campus of Keysight in the Fountain Grove neighborhood of Santa Rosa, causing the complete loss of historical archives of Hewlett-Packard (consisting of over 100 boxes of documents from William Hewlett and David Packard, who had founded the company in Silicon Valley in 1938). [15] A former HP employee who had previously been in charge of the archives commented that "a huge piece of American business history is gone", and Keysight disputed criticism that the archives (which it had acquired at the time of its founding in 2014) had been inadequately protected. [15]

In 2021, the United States Department of State fined Keysight $6.6 million for unauthorized sales of defense-related software to China, Russia, and 15 other countries from 2015 to 2018, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. [16] According to the State Department, some of the sales posed a risk to national security, and the company had been notified of potential unauthorized data transactions in 2017. Keysight agreed to pay the fine and to hire a compliance officer to conduct future audits. [17]

Research and development

From its launch in 2014 until 2020, Keysight increased its investment in R&D from approximately 12% to 16%, a percentage increase that represented almost a doubling of the investment in absolute dollars. [18]

Awards

Keysight won the 2014 Global Frost & Sullivan award for market leadership with $300 million in instrumentation software revenue. The citation states R&D investment of 12% of revenue ($365 million in 2013) as an important factor. [19] [ non-primary source needed ]

In recent years, Keysight received a ranking of #46 on Forbes list of “American’s Best Midsize Companies. [6]

Keysight was recently ranked #46 on Fortune's 2022 100 Best Companies to Work for. [20]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Logic analyzer</span> Electronic test instrument that measures multiple signals from a circuit

A logic analyzer is an electronic instrument that captures and displays multiple logic signals from a digital system or digital circuit. A logic analyzer may convert the captured data into timing diagrams, protocol decodes, state machine traces, opcodes, or may correlate opcodes with source-level software. Logic analyzers have advanced triggering capabilities, and are useful when a user needs to see the timing relationships between many signals in a digital system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GPIB</span> General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB) specification

IEEE 488, also known as HP-IB and generically as GPIB, is a short-range digital communications 8-bit parallel multi-master interface bus specification developed by Hewlett-Packard. It subsequently became the subject of several standards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agilent Technologies</span> American technology company

Agilent Technologies, Inc. is an American global company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, that provides instruments, software, services, and consumables for laboratories. Agilent was established in 1999 as a spin-off from Hewlett-Packard. The resulting IPO of Agilent stock was the largest in the history of Silicon Valley at the time. From 1999 to 2014, the company produced optics, semiconductors, EDA software and test and measurement equipment for electronics; that division was spun off to form Keysight. Since then, the company has continued to expand into pharmaceutical, diagnostics & clinical, and academia & government (research) markets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spectrum analyzer</span> Electronic testing device

A spectrum analyzer measures the magnitude of an input signal versus frequency within the full frequency range of the instrument. The primary use is to measure the power of the spectrum of known and unknown signals. The input signal that most common spectrum analyzers measure is electrical; however, spectral compositions of other signals, such as acoustic pressure waves and optical light waves, can be considered through the use of an appropriate transducer. Spectrum analyzers for other types of signals also exist, such as optical spectrum analyzers which use direct optical techniques such as a monochromator to make measurements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HP Autonomy</span> British software company

HP Autonomy, previously Autonomy Corporation PLC, was an enterprise software company which was merged with Micro Focus in 2017 and OpenText in 2023. It was founded in Cambridge, United Kingdom in 1996.

A corporate spin-off, also known as a spin-out, or starburst or hive-off, is a type of corporate action where a company "splits off" a section as a separate business or creates a second incarnation, even if the first is still active. It is distinct from a sell-off, where a company sells a section to another company or firm in exchange for cash or securities.

Rocky Mountain BASIC is a dialect of the BASIC programming language created by Hewlett-Packard. It was especially popular for control of automatic test equipment using GPIB. It has several features which are or were unusual in BASIC dialects, such as event-driven operation, extensive external I/O support, complex number support, and matrix manipulation functions. Today, RMB is mainly used in environments where an investment in RMB software, hardware, or expertise already exists.

Spirent Communications plc is a British multinational telecommunications testing company headquartered in Crawley, West Sussex, in the United Kingdom. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broadcom</span> American semiconductor company

Broadcom Inc. is an American multinational designer, developer, manufacturer, and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wireless, storage, and industrial markets. As of 2023, some 79 percent of Broadcom's revenue came from its semiconductor-based products and 21 percent from its infrastructure software products and services.

Mphasis Limited is an Indian multinational information technology service and consulting company based in Bangalore. The company provides infrastructure technology and applications outsourcing services, as well as architecture guidance, application development and integration, and application management services. It serves financial services, telecom, logistics, and technology industries. Mphasis was ranked #7 in Indian IT companies and overall #189 by Fortune India 500 in 2019. In April 2016, Hewlett Packard Enterprise sold the majority of its stake in Mphasis to Blackstone Group LP for around US$1 billion.

PathWave Design is a division of Keysight Technologies that was formerly called EEsof. It is a provider of electronic design automation (EDA) software that helps engineers design products such as cellular phones, wireless networks, radar, satellite communications systems, and high-speed digital wireline infrastructure. Applications include electronic system level (ESL), high-speed digital, RF-Mixed signal, device modeling, RF and Microwave design for commercial wireless, aerospace, and defense markets.

Momentum is 3-D planar EM simulation software for electronics and antenna analysis, a partial differential equation solver of Maxwell's equations based on the method of moments. It is a 3-D planar electromagnetic (EM) simulator used for passive circuit analysis.

A digital pattern generator is a piece of electronic test equipment or software used to generate digital electronic stimuli. Digital electronics stimuli are a specific kind of electrical waveform varying between two conventional voltages that correspond to two logic states. The main purpose of a digital pattern generator is to stimulate the inputs of a digital electronic device. For that reason, the voltage levels generated by a digital pattern generator are often compatible with digital electronics I/O standards – TTL, LVTTL, LVCMOS and LVDS, for instance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">X-parameters</span>

X-parameters are a generalization of S-parameters and are used for characterizing the amplitudes and relative phase of harmonics generated by nonlinear components under large input power levels. X-parameters are also referred to as the parameters of the Poly-Harmonic Distortion (PHD) nonlinear behavioral model.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hewlett-Packard</span> American information technology company (1939–2015)

The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components, as well as software and related services to consumers, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and fairly large companies, including customers in government, health, and education sectors. The company was founded in a one-car garage in Palo Alto by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939, and initially produced a line of electronic test and measurement equipment. The HP Garage at 367 Addison Avenue is now designated an official California Historical Landmark, and is marked with a plaque calling it the "Birthplace of 'Silicon Valley'".

Corelis, Inc, a subsidiary of Electronic Warfare Associates, is a private American company categorized under Electronic Equipment & Supplies and based in Cerritos, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ixia (company)</span> US computer networking company

Ixia was a public computer networking company operating in around 25 countries until its acquisition by Keysight Technologies Inc. in 2017. Ixia was headquartered in Calabasas, California and had approximately 1,750 employees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anite</span> Company in Fleet, United Kingdom

Anite is a supplier of test and measurement software to the international wireless market. It provides testing, measurement, optimisation and analytics systems based on its specialist sector knowledge and its proprietary software and hardware products. Customers include major manufacturers of mobile devices, chipsets and network equipment, mobile network operators, regulatory authorities, and independent test houses.

Viavi Solutions Inc., formerly part of JDS Uniphase Corporation (JDSU), is an American network test, measurement and assurance technology company based in Chandler, Arizona. The company manufactures testing and monitoring equipment for networks. It also develops optical technology used for a range of applications including material quality control, currency anti-counterfeiting and 3D motion sensing, including Microsoft's Kinect video game controller.

References

  1. "Form 10-12B, Registration of securities, for SEC Accession No. 0001047469-14-001833". US Securities and Exchange Commission. 2014-03-05. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Keysight Technologies Fact Sheet" (PDF). Keysight. 17 November 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  3. "Keysight Technologies, Inc. 2023 Annual Report (Form 10-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 15 December 2023.
  4. "Agilent Technologies Reveals Name of Electronic Measurement Spin-Off Company". Agilent. 7 January 2014. Archived from the original on 8 December 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  5. Kelly Hill (December 9, 2014). "After spin-off, Keysight strikes out on its own". RCR Wireless News. Retrieved 2015-01-03. ...high-performance instrumentation approach for benchtop equipment ... also has been adding to its modular portfolio ... as well as portable testing products...
  6. 1 2 "Keysight News Archive | Agilent Technologies Reveals Name of Electronic Measurement Spin-Off Company | Keysight Press Release". about.keysight.com. 2014-01-07. Retrieved 2018-10-19.
  7. Keysight. "Circuit Design Software". Keysight.
  8. Hindle, Patrick; Lerude, Gary (January 14, 2015). "Keysight Technologies: Reborn". Microwave Journal. Retrieved 2015-01-15.
  9. "Keysight Technologies to buy UK's Anite in $607 million deal". Reuters. June 17, 2015. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
  10. "Keysight Technologies to buy Ixia for $1.6 billion". Reuters. January 30, 2017. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  11. "Keysight Technologies Announces Closing of Acquisition of Ixia" (Press release). Keysight. April 18, 2017. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  12. Kellaher, Colin (June 25, 2020). "Keysight Technologies Acquires Eggplant From Carlyle Group". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
  13. "Keysight to buy French software firm ESI Group for nearly $1 billion". Reuters. June 28, 2023.
  14. "Keysight outbids rival Viavi to buy UK's Spirent for $1.5 billion". Reuters. March 29, 2024.
  15. 1 2 Digitale, Robert (2017-10-29). "HP historical archives destroyed in Santa Rosa fires". Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Retrieved 2023-06-03.
  16. Swindell, Bill (August 16, 2021). "Keysight Technologies penalized $6.6 million after exporting unauthorized software". The Press Democrat . Retrieved July 27, 2022.
  17. Forrester, Brett (August 9, 2021). "State Department Fines Radar Company for Unauthorized Exports to China, Russia". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved July 28, 2022.
  18. "Pushing the limits of tech measurement". 17 August 2021.
  19. "Frost & Sullivan Lauds Keysight Technologies for Maintaining its Lead in the Instrumentation Software Market". Frost & Sullivan. December 3, 2014. Archived from the original on January 10, 2015. Retrieved 2015-01-03. Investing over 12% of its revenues in R&D, resulting into $365 million in its last fiscal year (2013), has led to the company's success, enabling it to introduce new software meeting evolving end-user technologies.
  20. "100 Best Companies to Work For". Fortune. Retrieved 2022-07-20.