Bruker has announced that it is to purchase certain product lines of Varian, including a global laboratory gas chromatography instruments business in The Netherlands. This takes place under the terms laid down by the conditional antitrust clearance granted by the European Commission, which stated that for Agilent to acquire Varian, the company was required to sell off some of Varian’s assets.

According to a statement from Agilent and Bruker, the product lines to be acquired include Varian's global inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) instruments business located in Melbourne, Australia; the company’s global gas chromatography triple-quadrupole mass spectrometry instruments business located in Walnut Creek, California, USA; and the global laboratory gas chromatography instruments business located in Middelburg, The Netherlands.

In the statement Bill Sullivan, Agilent president and CEO, said, "The agreement to sell these businesses to Bruker is an important milestone toward completing our acquisition of Varian. While we would have liked to have been able to keep all of these businesses, we are pleased that they will be operated under the strength of Bruker's leadership."

In connection with the transaction, Agilent and Bruker report that the companies intend to enter into a transitional services agreement and a supply agreement to facilitate the uninterrupted delivery of high-quality products and services to new and existing customers of these three businesses.

Frank Laukien, Bruker president and CEO, added, "The three new product lines will form the core offerings in a newly established Bruker Chemical Analysis Division with an experienced and dedicated management team. We are very much looking forward to welcoming the customers of the present Varian Lab GC, GC-QQQ and ICP-MS products to Bruker, and we are committed to providing the highest level of applications and service support."

For more information on-line visit www.agilent.com and www.bruker.com