Keysight Technologies

Keysight Technologies – The Spun-off Electronics Division of HP, Making Big in the Industry.

Keysight Technologies can be cited as the spun-off company of Hewlett-Packard, as it was one of the electronic test and measurement divisions of the latter before Keysight could be called an independent company. First, Keysight was a division at HP and then was taken over by Agilent Technologies (another division of HP).

The company came into being in 2014 and has made its separate identity in the world of electronics. Keysight Technologies, after getting separated from Hewlett-Packard, continued to manufacture and supply the electronics test and measurement equipment and added software development to one of its specializations.

About the Company

Though Keysight is a seven years old company, still with the experience of being a part of two big names Hewlett-Packard and Agilent Technologies, it was able to make its mark in the industry quite smoothly. Today the company has its own several divisions, including PathWave Design and PathWave Test oscilloscopes, etc., and over 14000 people are working for the company. Other than America, Keysight Technologies is operational in countries like UK and Australia. As of 2019, the company made an annual revenue worth US$4.3 billion.

A Brief History Keysight Technologies

The founders of Hewlett-Packard, Dave Packard, and Bill Hewlett, who were also good friends from their graduation from Stanford University, founding HP from a garage in Palo Alto, California, in 1939, today known as the Silicon Valley. The two started the company after they discovered their passion for innovation while camping in the Colorado mountains.

If we look at the beginning of HP, it started as an oscillator and electronic measurement manufacturing company. As time went by, HP excelled in its field and also added many other divisions, like the manufacturing of computers and printers, to its business. In 1999, the company separated its test and measurement components business and the computer-printer manufacturing business. The former went under the control of Agilent Technologies, the Medical Products and Instrument Group formed by HP.

Keysight Technologies
Image Source: keysight.com

For about fifteen years, Agilent handled the operations of Keysight Technologies, but on November 1, 2014, Keysight officially became a separate electronic measurement company through the spinning off of Agilent Technologies. Since then, the company has only stepped towards success. It also made some major acquisitions in the past seven years, which include Anite PLC (2015), Electroservices Enterprises UK Ltd (2015), Ixia (2017), Thales Calibration Services (2018), Eggplant (2020), and Quantum Benchmark (2021).

Keysight Technologies has established its headquarter in Santa Rosa, California, U.S., and trades on the New York Stock Exchange as KEYS.

Products by Keysight Technologies

Keysight Technologies, being a part of HP in the past, have similar values attached to its work. The major fields Keysight is focussing today include 5G, automotive, Internet of Things, network security, etc. and manufactures software and hardware products for benchtop, modular, and field instruments. Oscilloscopes, in-circuit testers, logic analyzers, signal generators, vector network analyzers, atomic force microscopes (AFM), automated optical inspection, automated X-ray inspection (5DX), power supplies, tunable lasers, optical power meters, wavelength-meters, optical modulation analyzers, etc. are the major products manufactured and shipped by Keysight Technologies.

The CEO: Ronald S. Nersesian

Ronald S. Nersesian is the president and the CEO of Keysight Technologies. Nersesian has got a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Lehigh University and has completed an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.

Nersesian started his career with Computer Sciences Corporation as a systems engineer for satellite communications systems in 1982. After working for two years at the company, he joined Hewlett-Packard in 1984 and continued to work at the company till 1996, when he joined LeCroy Corporation. In 2002 Nersesian joined Agilent Technologies as the vice president and general manager of the Design Validation Division of the company. Till 2014, he managed various roles at Agilent Technologies, like the executive vice president and COO of the company. In 2014, Nersesian was appointed as the chairman, president, and CEO of Keysight Technologies.