Keithley, another one bites the ... Danaher

[Bored@Work]

I just read a press release that Danaher bought Keithley. http://www.danaher.com/news/news_detail.asp?key=386

You don't know Danaher? Well, they own a few other companies, too. One is called Fluke. Another one they own is called Tektronix. They say they will make Keithley part of Tektronix. It will be interesting to see what will happen to Keithley's multimeter products.

[EEVblog]

The evil Danaher group strike again...

Dave.

[PetrosA]

This is SUCH an invitation to rant

I'm not sure what I think about this trend in business. It's maybe related in some big way to patents and how intellectual property law is taking shape in modern business, but on the other hand there does seem to be something "evil" in it.

There is a very similar thing that happened with cordless tools. Most of the tool companies buy their motors from Johnson and their batteries from Panasonic. Most of the tool companies are actually owned by one of a few conglomerates - Stanley owns Black and Decker which owns DeWalt, Delta, Porter-Cable etc.; TTI in Hong Kong owns Milwaukee, AEG, Ryobi etc.; Bosch owns something like 350 subsidiaries, and the list goes on. While there is definitely a trend towards more affordability with power tools, the downside is that to get truly great tools from an innovative company, you have to pay 2-3 times as much like Hilti, Festool or some other small specialized brands. Mostly the only difference between them at this point is whose Johnson is bigger.

If the same One World trend takes over in test equipment, the only real difference between brands will be which market segment the parent companies decide to conquer with which brand at what price range. Sad.

[Mechatrommer]

The evil Danaher group strike again...

evil? more and more people are talking (or putting high) about Fluke and Tektronix stuffs?

This is SUCH an invitation to rant

be careful... someone (not me) will just say... you always talk nonsense

Maybe this kind of news... just explained the Law of "Survival of the Fittest"

[EEVblog]

Maybe this kind of news... just explained the Law of "Survival of the Fittest"

It's survival of the richest.

Dave.

[slburris]

If the same One World trend takes over in test equipment, the only real difference between brands will be which market segment the parent companies decide to conquer with which brand at what price range. Sad.

So taking out all the China based general T&M companies, who is left that's not part of Danaher?

Hmm, Agilent, R&S, uh....thinking....still thinking

Anyone else?  There must be.

Scott

[Bored@Work]

evil? more and more people are talking (or putting high) about Fluke and Tektronix stuffs?

It is the other way around. Fluke and Tektronix acquired their solid reputation before they were bought by Danaher. It is not Danaher who build that reputation. They just spend a lot of money to buying these companies with their reputation.

Here is a Business Week article about Danaher from 2007 http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_08/b4022065.htm Also check the comments, where some people talk about what happened with Tektronix after Danaher bought them.