So far, Wall Street has rewarded the company, sending the stock up more than 300 percent from the IPO price. DNA analyzing machine, which helps scientists hunt for genetic causes and cures for disease, as one of its most promising products. And as high-speed access to the Internet and wireless phones span across the country, it will be Agilent instruments that evaluate much of their reliability. At a time when investors are rewarding focus, not diversification, the CEO's goal is to productively mingle biologists, physicists, electrical engineers and materials scientists. Barnholt proudly holds Agilent's new optical switch as an example of the creativity he envisions.
Competitors use mirrors to redirect light in fiber optic cables.
Agilent created one that uses tiny bubbles. With their knowledge of heating ink for inkjet printers, Agilent physicists and engineers boiled minute amounts of liquid into bubbles of gas. Meanwhile, chemists hunted for the ideal liquid to use. Without the company's diverse technical staff, he insisted, such a project would never have come together. Search our database of the 150 largest publicly traded Silicon Valley companies.