| Type | Public (NYSE: PKI) S&P 500 Component |
|---|---|
| Industry | Human health, environmental analysis, medical imaging, drug discovery, diagnostics, biotechnology, specialty lighting and sensors |
| Founded | 1931 |
| Headquarters | Waltham, MA |
| Key people | Robert Friel, Chairman, CEO, and President |
| Products | Analytical instruments, genetic testing and diagnostic tools, medical imaging equipment, software, instruments and consumables for life sciences |
| Revenue | $1.8 billion USD (2009) |
| Employees | 8,800 (2010) |
| Website | www.perkinelmer.com |
PerkinElmer, Inc. (NYSE: PKI) is an American multinational technology corporation, focused in the business areas of human and environmental health, including environmental analysis, food and consumer product safety, medical imaging, drug discovery, diagnostics, biotechnology, industrial applications, and life science research. PerkinElmer produces analytical instruments, genetic testing and diagnostic tools, medical imaging components, software, instruments, and consumables for multiple end markets.
PerkinElmer is part of the S&P 500 index and operates in 150 countries. As of 2010, it has a market capitalization of ~3.0 billion.
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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. Analytical-instruments business was also operated from 1954 to 2001 in Germany, by the Bodenseewerk Perkin-Elmer GmbH located in Überlingen at Lake Constance.
Perkin-Elmer built the optical systems for the KH-9 Hexagon series of spy satellites at a facility in Danbury, Connecticut.[3]
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. The polishing process 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.[4] 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 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.[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.
PerkinElmer has continued to expands 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 October 2007, it purchased ViaCell, Inc. with its offices in Boston and cord blood storage facility in Kentucky near Cincinnati. The company was renamed ViaCord.
In March 2008, PerkinElmer purchased Pediatrix Screening (formerly Neo Gen Screening), a laboratory located in Bridgeville, PA 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.
In May 2011, PerkinElmer announced the signature of an agreement to acquire CambridgeSoft, and the successful acquisition of ArtusLabs.[5]
In September 2011, PerkinElmer bought Caliper Life Sciences for $600 million.[6]