PerkinElmer — BrandWiki

PerkinElmer

Overview

PerkinElmer, Inc.

type	Private
traded as	(until 2023)
founded	1937
hq location	Shelton, Connecticut, U.S. (2023)
key people	Dirk Bontridder, Chief Executive Officer Rosemary Pitts, Chief Financial Officer
num employees	~5000
revenue	Not communicated
industry	Medtech
owner	New Mountain Capital
products	Provides end-to-end discovery, measurement & testing solutions and specialized Pharma services (analytical solutions for applied markets, pharma services, food quality & safety solutions, omics sample prep solutions).
website	https://www.perkinelmer.com

PerkinElmer, Inc., previously styled Perkin-Elmer, is an American global corporation that was founded in 1937 and originally focused on precision optics. Over the years it went into and out of several different businesses via acquisitions and divestitures; these included defense products, semiconductors, computer systems, and others. By the 21st century, PerkinElmer was focused in the business areas of diagnostics, life science research, food, environmental and industrial testing. Its capabilities include detection, imaging, informatics, and service. It produced analytical instruments, genetic testing and diagnostic tools, medical imaging components, software, instruments, and consumables for multiple end markets. PerkinElmer was part of the S&P 500 Index and operated in 190 countries.

Over its history, PerkinElmer has been split in two twice. In 1999, PerkinElmer merged with EG&G, with the ongoing Analytical Instruments Division of Perkin-Elmer keeping that name, while the life sciences division of the company became the separate PE Corporation. In 2022, a split of PerkinElmer resulted in one part, comprising applied, food and enterprise services businesses, being sold to the private equity firm New Mountain Capital for $2.45 billion and thus no longer being public but kept the PerkinElmer name. The other part, comprising life sciences and diagnostics businesses, remained public but required a new name, which in 2023 was announced as Revvity, Inc.[1]

History

Founding

Semiconductor manufacturing

In 1967, the U.S. Air Force asked Perkin-Elmer to produce an all-optical "masking" system for semiconductor fabrication. Previous systems used a pattern, the "mask", which was pressed onto the surface of the silicon wafer as part of the photolithography process. Small bits of dirt or photoresist would stick the mask and ruin the patterning for subsequent chips, and it was not uncommon for the vast majority of the chips from a given wafer to malfunction. The Air Force, which by the late 1960s was highly reliant on integrated circuits, desired a more reliable system.[3]

Perkin-Elmer responded with the Microprojector, which was essentially a large photocopier system. The mask was placed in a holder and never touched the surface of the chip. Instead, the image was projected onto the surface. Making this work required a complex 16-element lens system that focussed a narrow range of wavelengths of light onto the mask. The remainder of the light from the 1,000 watt mercury-vapor lamp was filtered out.[3]

Harold Hemstreet was convinced that the concept could be simplified, and Abe Offner began the development of a system using mirrors instead of lenses, which did not suffer from the multispectral focussing problems of lenses. The result of this research was the Projection Scanning Aligner, or Micralign, which made chip making an assembly-line task and improved the number of working chips from perhaps 10% to 70% overnight.[3] Chip prices plummeted as a result, with examples like the MOS 6502 selling for about US$20 while the previous generation of designs like the Motorola 6800 sold for around US$250.

The Micralign was so successful that Perkin-Elmer became the largest single vendor in the chip space in three years. In spite of this success, the company was largely a has-been by the 1980s due to their late response to the introduction of the stepping aligner, which allowed a single small mask to be stepped across the wafer, rather than requiring a single large mask covering the entire wafer. The company never regained their lead, and sold the division to The Silicon Valley Group.[3]

Computer Systems Division

Perkin-Elmer was involved in computer manufacture for a time. The Perkin-Elmer Computer Systems Division was formed through the purchase of Interdata, Inc., an independent computer manufacturer, in 1973–1974 for some US$63 million.[4][5] This merger made Perkin-Elmer's annual sales rise to over US$200 million.[5] This was also known as Perkin-Elmer's Data Systems Group.[6] The 32-bit computers were very similar to an IBM System/370, but ran the OS/32MT operating system. In 1976, Perkin-Elmer acquired Wangco, a Los Angeles manufacturer of tape drives for $30 million in a stock swap.[7][8]

The Computer Systems Division had a large presence in Monmouth County, New Jersey, with some 1,700 staff making it one of the county's largest private employers.[9] Its plant in Oceanport had 800 employees alone.[9] By the early-mid-1980s the computing group had sales of $259 million; while profitable, it tended to have reduced visibility within the computing industry due to being owned by a diversified parent.[9]

The Wollongong Group provided the commercial version of the Unix port to the Interdata 7/32 hardware, known as Edition 7 Unix. The port was originally done by the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia, and was the first UNIX port to hardware other than the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP family.[10] By 1982, the Wollongong Group Edition 7 Unix and Programmer's Workbench (PWB) were available on models such as the Perkin-Elmer 3210 and 3240 minicomputers.

In 1985, the computing division of Perkin-Elmer was spun off as Concurrent Computer Corporation,[11] with the goal of giving it and the parallel processing product a clearer identification within the computer industry. At first, the new company was a wholly owned subsidiary of Perkin-Elmer, but with the intentions of putting a minority ownership in the company up for a public stock sale.[12] This was done one in February 1986, with Perkin-Elmer retaining an 82 percent stake in Concurrent.[13] In 1988, there was a merger between Concurrent Computer Corporation and MASSCOMP; as part of the deal, Perkin-Elmer's share in Concurrent was bought out.[14] At that point, Perkin-Elmer said they had culminated their multi-year process of exiting from computer market, allowing them to focus on their primary business segments.[13]

Recently

In 1992, the company merged with Applied Biosystems. In 1997 they merged with PerSeptive Biosystems. On July 14, 1999, the new analytical instruments maker PerkinElmer cut 350 jobs, or 12%, in its cost reduction reorganization.[16] In 2006, PerkinElmer sold off the Fluid Sciences division for approximately US$400 million; the aim of the selloff was to increase the strategic focus on its higher-growth health sciences and photonic markets. Following on from the selloff, a number of small businesses were acquired, including Spectral Genomics, Improvision, Evotec-Technologies, Euroscreen, ViaCell, and Avalon Instruments. The brand "Evotec-Technologies" remains the property of Evotec, the former owner company. PerkinElmer had a license to use the brand until the end of year 2007.

PerkinElmer has continued to expand its interest in medicine with the acquisitions of clinical laboratories, In July 2006, it acquired NTD Labs located on Long Island, New York. The laboratory specializes in prenatal screening during the first trimester of pregnancy. In 2007, it purchased ViaCell, Inc. for US$300 million,[17] which included its offices in Boston and cord blood storage facility in Kentucky near Cincinnati. The company was renamed ViaCord. In 2001 Perkin Elmer acquired Packard Bioscience Inc from its majority shareholder, Dick McKernen. This acquisition also came with Agincourt Technologies Inc and consolidated Perkin Elmer's position in laboratory robotics, in particular, liquid handling robots which were to prove essential for the high-throughput sequencing needed for the Human Genome Project.

In March 2008, PerkinElmer purchased Pediatrix Screening (formerly Neo Gen Screening), a laboratory located in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania specializing in screening newborns for various inborn errors of metabolism such as phenylketonuria, hypothyroidism, and sickle-cell disease. It renamed the laboratory PerkinElmer Genetics, Inc.[18]

In May 2011, PerkinElmer announced the signature of an agreement to acquire CambridgeSoft, and the successful acquisition of ArtusLabs.[19]

In September 2011, PerkinElmer bought Caliper Life Sciences for US$600 million.[20]

In December 2014 PerkinElmer acquired Perten Instruments for US$266 million to expand in food testing.[21]

In January 2016, PerkinElmer acquired Swedish firm Vanadis Diagnostics.[22]

In February 2016 PerkinElmer acquired Delta Instruments.[23]

In January 2017, the company announced it would acquire the Indian in vitro diagnostic company, Tulip Diagnostics.[24] In May 2017, the company acquired Euroimmun Medical Laboratory Diagnostics for approximately US$1.3 billion.[25]

In 2018, the company acquired Australian biotech company, RHS Ltd., Chinese manufacturer of analytical instruments, Shanghai Spectrum Instruments Co. Ltd., and France-based company Cisbio Bioassays, which specializes in diagnostics and drug discovery solutions.[26][27][28]

In November 2020, PerkinElmer announced it would acquire Horizon Discovery Group for around US$383 million.[29]

In March 2021, PerkinElmer announced that the company has completed its acquisition of Oxford Immunotec Global PLC (Oxford Immunotec).[30] In May of the same year, the business announced it would purchase Nexcelom Bioscience for $260 million[31][32] and Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings PLC for $155 million.[33] In June the company announced it would acquire SIRION Biotech, a specialist in viral vector gene delivery methods.[34] In July the business announced it would acquire BioLegend for $5.25 billion.[35]