PerkinElmer

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PerkinElmer, Inc.
Type Public (NYSE: PKI)
Founded 1931
Headquarters Waltham, MA
Key people Robert Friel, Chairman, CEO, and President
Industry Health Sciences, Fluid Sciences, Optoelectronics, Biotechnology
Products Analytical instruments, Optoelectronics, Genetic Screening tools, Medical Imaging equipment, Life & Analytical Science software and instruments
Revenue Green Arrow Up.svg$1.687 billion USD (2004)
Employees ~9,500 (2008)
Website www.perkinelmer.com

PerkinElmer, Inc. (NYSE: PKI) is an American multinational technology corporation, focused in the business areas of: Life and Analytical Sciences, Optoelectronics, and Fluid Sciences. PerkinElmer's Life and Analytical Sciences division engineers and manufactures drug research and development tools, chemical, environmental, food and consumer product monitoring instruments, medical imaging devices, genetic screening tools and software for cellular imaging & analysis. Their Optoelectronics division designs and builds digital imaging and specialty lighting equipment.

PerkinElmer is part of the S&P 500 index and operates in 125 countries. As of 2005, it has a market capitalization of ~3.0 billion.

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[edit] History

PerkinElmer traces its history back to a merger between divisions of what had been two S&P 500 companies, EG&G Inc. (formerly NYSE: EGG) of Wellesley, Massachusetts and Perkin-Elmer (formerly NYSE: PKN) of Norwalk, Connecticut. On May 28, 1999, the non-government side of EG&G Inc. purchased the Analytical Instruments Division of Perkin-Elmer, its traditional business segment, for US$425 million, also assuming the Perkin-Elmer name and forming the new PerkinElmer company, with new officers and a new Board of Directors.[1][2] At the time, EG&G made products for diverse industries including automotive, medical, aerospace and photography.[2]

The old Perkin-Elmer Board of Directors and Officers remained at that reorganized company under its new name, PE Corporation. It had been the Life Sciences division of Perkin-Elmer, and its two component tracking stock business groups, Celera Genomics (NYSE: CRA) and PE Biosystems (formerly NYSE: PEB), were centrally involved in the highest profile biotechnology events of the decade, the intense race against the Human Genome Project consortium, which then resulted in the genomics segment of the technology bubble.

EG&G began in 1931; It was started by two MIT professors, Harold Edgerton and Kenneth Germeshausen in a Boston garage. The company was originally incorporated in 1947 as EG&G.

Perkin-Elmer was founded in 1937 by Richard Perkin and Charles Elmer as an optical design and consulting company. In 1944, Perkin-Elmer entered the analytical-instruments business, and in the early 1990s, partnered with Cetus Corporation (and later Hoffmann-La Roche) to pioneer the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) equipment industry.

PerkinElmer headquarters in Waltham
Polishing of Hubble's primary mirror begins at Perkin-Elmer corporation, Danbury, Connecticut, May 1979. The engineer pictured is Dr. Martin Yellin, an optical engineer working for Perkin-Elmer on the project.

Perkin-Elmer was commissioned to build the optical components of the Hubble Space Telescope. The construction of the main mirror was begun in 1979 and completed in 1981. However the polishing ran over budget and behind schedule, producing significant friction with NASA. Due to a miscalibrated null corrector, the primary mirror was also found to have a significant spherical aberration after reaching orbit on STS-31. A NASA investigation heavily criticized Perkin-Elmer for management failings, disregarding written quality guidelines, and ignoring test data that showed this miscalibration.[3] Corrective optics were installed on the telescope during the first Hubble service and repair mission STS-61. The correction, COSTAR, was applied entirely to the secondary mirror and replaced existing instrumentation: the primary mirror still has a significant aberration.

In 1992 they 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.[2]

In 2006 PerkinElmer sold off the Fluid Sciences division for approximately $400M, the aim on the sell off was to increase the strategic focus on its higher-growth health sciences and photonic markets. Following on from the sell off a number of leading /dynamic small businesses were acquired, these included 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 till the end of year 2007.

[edit] Focus Areas

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ What is the logic of biology? a letter from tony white to our shareholders, PE Corporation, 1999 Annual Report, CEO letter
  2. ^ a b c COMPANY NEWS; PERKIN-ELMER CUTS 12% OF WORK FORCE, New York Times, Published: July 15, 1999
  3. ^ The Hubble Space Telescope Optical Systems Failure ReportPDF (5.62 MiB), 1990, Lew Allen, Chairman, NASA Technical Report NASA-TM-103443. The spacing of the field lens in the corrector was to have been done by laser measurements off the end of an invar bar. Instead of illuminating the end of the bar, however, the laser in fact was reflected from a worn spot on a black-anodized metal cap placed over the end of the bar to isolate its center (visible through a hole in the cap). The technician who performed the test noted an unexpected gap between the field lens and its supporting structure in the corrector and filled it in with an ordinary metal washer. (No longer available prior to 10/09)

[edit] External links

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