The European Commission cleared, under the EU merger regulation, on 21 January, the proposed acquisition of Varian Inc by Agilent Technologies Inc, provided the firms divest themselves of certain of their activities to prevent competition problems. The two American companies are active in the manufacture of bioanalytical measurement instruments (analytical and life sciences instruments) and related services, consumables and software.

The parties’ activities overlap in the areas of analytical instrumentation and consumables in the European Economic Area (EEA).

COMPETITION CONCERNS

The Commission identified competition concerns in the markets for: laboratory gas chromatography, micro/portable gas chromatography, triple quadrupole gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (triple quad GC-MS) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) instruments in the EEA.

To remedy the competition concerns raised by the Commission in relation to each of these instruments markets, Agilent and Varian have agreed to divest themselves of Agilent’s entire global micro/portable GC instrument business, as well as Varian’s entire global lab GV, triple quad GC-MS and ICP-MC instrument business. After market testing the proposed commitments, the Commission concluded that they would remove the competition concerns identified and ensure that effective competition would not be impeded as a result of the proposed transaction.