What will become of Agilent semi biz?

[Joerg]

Hello Folks,

Any hunches about what will become of Agilent's semiconductor business?
We know where the LED sector will go but about the rest it just says this:

"An agreement to divest the Semiconductor Products segment to Kohlberg
Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and Silver Lake Partners ..."

I like their PIN diodes a lot but this is going to be the 2nd time that
product line changes hand.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

 

[John Larkin]

On Tue, 16 Aug 2005 21:27:58 GMT, Joerg
<notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote:

Hello Folks,

Any hunches about what will become of Agilent's semiconductor business?
We know where the LED sector will go but about the rest it just says this:

"An agreement to divest the Semiconductor Products segment to Kohlberg
Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and Silver Lake Partners ..."

I like their PIN diodes a lot but this is going to be the 2nd time that
product line changes hand.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Dang, we just designed in their inductive-coupled logic isolators.

They used to make good schottkies and SRDs, but have dropped most of
them by now.

John

 

[David L. Jones]

Joerg wrote:

Hello Folks,

Any hunches about what will become of Agilent's semiconductor business?
We know where the LED sector will go but about the rest it just says this:

"An agreement to divest the Semiconductor Products segment to Kohlberg
Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and Silver Lake Partners ..."

No idea. But Agilent are now rebadging scopes from Rigol in China.
Shock horror.

Dave

 

[Winfield Hill]

John Larkin wrote...

Joerg wrote:

Any hunches about what will become of Agilent's semiconductor business?
We know where the LED sector will go but about the rest it just says this:

"An agreement to divest the Semiconductor Products segment to Kohlberg
Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and Silver Lake Partners ..."

I like their PIN diodes a lot but this is going to be the 2nd time that
product line changes hand.

Dang, we just designed in their inductive-coupled logic isolators.

They used to make good schottkies and SRDs, but have dropped most of
them by now.

I doubt there'll be any disruption, for loyal customers anyway.
The Kohlberg Kravis Roberts gang will merely act as short-term
caretakers for the operation until they package and sell it to
another semiconductor company (for a healthy profit), where it
will no doubt be integrated into an on-going operation.

Smoothly, one hopes. Some people will lose their jobs. :>(


--
Thanks,
- Win

 

[Joerg]

Hello David,

No idea. But Agilent are now rebadging scopes from Rigol in China.
Shock horror.

Really? Did they let their R&D folks go? I remember when they first
outsourced some engineering efforts in the HP days and let Yokogawa do
it for them. It wasn't the same performance and feel anymore so I pretty
much quit buying HP gear in those days.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

 

[Joerg]

Hello Winfield,

I doubt there'll be any disruption, for loyal customers anyway.
The Kohlberg Kravis Roberts gang will merely act as short-term
caretakers for the operation until they package and sell it to
another semiconductor company (for a healthy profit), where it
will no doubt be integrated into an on-going operation.

Yes, that would be the usual scenario. Unfortunately that often leads to
a "streamlining", "focusing on the core values" or whatever MBA speak is
going to be used. Meaning some of the good stuff might go to lala-land
because it made less than $10M or so per year in sales.

Smoothly, one hopes. Some people will lose their jobs. :>(

I know one who already did. But he went to an Asian company that now
picks up the jobs that didn't get done anymore. And bills Agilent, so I
guess they now pay $1.50 on the Dollar to keep their customers happy.
Great progress.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

 

[Joerg]

Hello John,

Dang, we just designed in their inductive-coupled logic isolators.

HP -> Agilent has been good to me so far. A very respectable company.
This time though it looks like the semi biz might be sold to a major
other semiconductor company as Winfield had hinted. When TI bought
Unitrode they kept the mainstream stuff but you never know. I'd probably
jot down a contingency plan just in case the last order bell clangeth.
Especially if these isolators are more of a niche part with low sales
volumes.

Custom magnetics are cheaper than we often think as long as it's a
decent volume. When I had to spec a custom toroid for a little switcher
and a few for data and signal transmission I was surprised they all came
in under a Dollar (Asia mostly).

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

 

[legg]

On 17 Aug 2005 02:29:08 -0700, Winfield Hill
<Winfield_member@newsguy.com> wrote:

John Larkin wrote...

I doubt there'll be any disruption, for loyal customers anyway.
The Kohlberg Kravis Roberts gang will merely act as short-term
caretakers for the operation until they package and sell it to
another semiconductor company (for a healthy profit), where it
will no doubt be integrated into an on-going operation.

Smoothly, one hopes. Some people will lose their jobs. :>(

Agilent Technologies Inc. (Palo Alto, CA) announced that it
is shedding its chip unit and spinning off other assets as
it concentrates on its test-and-measurement business. About
1,300 jobs will be cut in the reorganization. Agilent also
agreed to sell its 47-percent stake in Lumileds to Royal
Philips Electronics for $950 million and the repayment of
$50 million in debt. Agilent also plans to spin off its
system-on-a-chip and memory test businesses in 2006.
Agilent is selling its semiconductor business to the buyout
firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Silver Lake Partners
for $2.66 billion.

RL

 

[David L. Jones]

Joerg wrote:

Hello David,

No idea. But Agilent are now rebadging scopes from Rigol in China.
Shock horror.

Really? Did they let their R&D folks go? I remember when they first
outsourced some engineering efforts in the HP days and let Yokogawa do
it for them. It wasn't the same performance and feel anymore so I pretty
much quit buying HP gear in those days.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Yep.
The new Agilent 3000 series scope is a re-badged Rigol, designed and
manufactured in China. It probably has slightly different firmware, but
that would be the only difference.
Pretty good scope actually, for the money. The Rigol guys were smart,
it looks like they deliberately designed their gear to work like and
have a similar interface to the Agilent gear. It must have been a
no-brainer decision for Agilent to re-badge it. It would have been
unlikely that Agilent could have met the aggresive price point needed
for this low end part of the market.
Apparently Rigol actually roll their own ADC/memory front end whcih is
why they are able to meet this price point.
The other new scopes in the Agilent range (6000 series etc) are still
Agilent through and through I believe.

Dave

 

[Winfield Hill]

Joerg wrote...

No idea. But Agilent are now rebadging scopes from Rigol in China.
Shock horror.

Really? Did they let their R&D folks go? I remember when they first
outsourced some engineering efforts in the HP days and let Yokogawa
do it for them. It wasn't the same performance and feel anymore so
I pretty much quit buying HP gear in those days.

What instruments are you referring to? Yokogawa designed (and
manufactured?) most of the line of vector impedance and high-
resolution LCR instruments that HP sold, and they are superior
instruments, thoroughly integrated into the HP mold. It's hard
for me to see how one would draw a negative inference from using
those instruments. Yokogawa was also tightly bound to HP in the
design manufacture and documentation of those instruments, which
appear to be home-grown HP in every way. Now that Yokogawa has
gone its own way, the intruments thay make bear little resemblance
to any of the Agilent instruments.


--
Thanks,
- Win

 

[Joerg]

Hello Winfield,

What instruments are you referring to? Yokogawa designed (and
manufactured?) most of the line of vector impedance and high-
resolution LCR instruments that HP sold, and they are superior
instruments, thoroughly integrated into the HP mold. It's hard
for me to see how one would draw a negative inference from using
those instruments. Yokogawa was also tightly bound to HP in the
design manufacture and documentation of those instruments, which
appear to be home-grown HP in every way. Now that Yokogawa has
gone its own way, the intruments thay make bear little resemblance
to any of the Agilent instruments.

I don't recall the types but found problems with things such as true
dynamic range. One was the new edition baseband analyzer and I couldn't
work with it. It would always beep and do an input overload shutdown.
That's why I usually try to find an old HP3585 analyzer when at a
client's site. The new ones often just don't measure up. Dynamic range
and a good dose of graceful overdrive capability are really crucial in
ultrasound where you have to run a range gate in front of the analyzer
and then crank it up to the hilt.

Same with network analyzers where I cherish the HP3577. Haven't seen a
match yet. Or the HP4191.

I am not dissing here and maybe Yokogawa even designed parts of these
instruments. But the front ends were truly the good old HP quality and
that is what counts for me.

A big disappointment lately was one of their spectrum analyzers. It was
ok for EMC work but when I was puzzled by mysterious spectra that the
DUT just couldn't produce and I found out it came from the analyzer's
LCD I almsot became angry. Had to eat a whole big bar of chocolate to
get the foil wrapper and put that over the screen during acquisition. So
maybe I could blame them for gaining weight.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

 

[Winfield Hill]

Joerg wrote...

A big disappointment lately was one of their spectrum analyzers. It was
ok for EMC work but when I was puzzled by mysterious spectra that the
DUT just couldn't produce and I found out it came from the analyzer's
LCD I almsot became angry. Had to eat a whole big bar of chocolate to
get the foil wrapper and put that over the screen during acquisition.
So maybe I could blame them for gaining weight.

a. Was that a Yokogawa product?
b. Was the offending LCD dictated from hp marketing, usa?

BTW, the SRS spectrum analyzers show huge lines corresponding to
their "ancient" CRT display's horizontal-retrace frequency. This
shows up a full meter away.


--
Thanks,
- Win

 

[Joerg]

Hello Winfield,

A big disappointment lately was one of their spectrum analyzers. It was
ok for EMC work but when I was puzzled by mysterious spectra that the
DUT just couldn't produce and I found out it came from the analyzer's
LCD I almsot became angry. Had to eat a whole big bar of chocolate to
get the foil wrapper and put that over the screen during acquisition.
So maybe I could blame them for gaining weight.

a. Was that a Yokogawa product?

I don't know whether this one was. I just mentioned it as a not so nice
experience with Agilent, an analyzer that I certainly would not buy.
Hopefully not a trend. Other than that it's a good company. Let's hope
it stays that way.

b. Was the offending LCD dictated from hp marketing, usa?

No idea, I wasn't involved in the design process ;-)

However, I have never had marketing "dictate" anything to me because
that can have unpleasant consequences for the company. Whether that was
while employed or while at clients. As engineers we must stand our
ground when we see usefulness to the customer being compromised. If it
is, then we have to politely explain why and what could be done. Or
maybe even that there is something that just can't be done.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com