Agilent Technologies' Earnings Fall 22% - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Rick Law
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 15, 2013, 03:22:15 am
content: News on a company most EEvBlog pay attention to:According to marketwatch pulse today:.....Agilent Technologies Inc. saw its shares fall more than 9% in after-hours trading Thursday following the company's fiscal first-quarter results. Agilent said it earned $179 million, or 51 cents a share, on revenue of $1.68 billion for the quarter ended Jan. 31. During the same period a year ago, Agilent earned $230 million, or 65 cents a share, on $1.64 billion in sales.... etc. etc. etc.I found the info above from:http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2013/02/14/agilent-technologies-earnings-fall-22/#ixzz2KvysvMIzI like Agilent, but a 22% hit is going to cause them some problems.

author: mike_kawasaki
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 15, 2013, 04:41:38 pm
content: Rick, as an Agilent employee appreciate your concern. We definitely missed The Street expectations.I've been here 24 years and continue to believe it is the best place to work. (Colorado Springs doing logic analyzers and scopes; Tokyo managing scopes, multimeters, power supplies; Santa Rosa on RF/Microwave products; Singapore with board testers, power supplies, handheld multimeters; now Santa Clara).There were some slowdowns in a few key markets. However, we're committed to continuing new product and solution innovation. Agilent spends about 8% on R&D, much higher than our competitors.We can't control our customer markets (but everyone buying a 2nd or 3rd smart phone would helpas about 1/3 of the Electronic T&M Group's sales are driven by the mobile communication market), yet we can keep working on differentiated products.I do appreciate all the comments on the EEVblog. We've integrated multiple inputs into new product designs. Plus I've been in direct contact with many posters to solve issues.Mike

author: Rick Law
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 15, 2013, 05:32:41 pm
content: Mike,I have no doubt Agilent will come out of this hiccup without a scratch.Bumps on the road is not fun so I Hope all is well there at Agilent - most of all hope you do well since you are a fellow EEvBlog member.I have always like Agilent (Hp) products since college and personally like to see Agilent do well.Rick

author: mike_kawasaki
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2013, 06:37:07 pm
content: Rick, thanks for the good wishes! We try to be proud of our products and support; but keep away from hubris (because we highly respect our competitors).I'm actually hosting a fellow EEVblogger this Friday at our Santa Clara site. We'll be doing some special testing and visiting the Agilent Museum. If any other EEVbloggers else ever visits the Bay Area let me know and happy to host if work schedule allows.Mike

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2013, 08:08:28 pm
content: In my experience, the high end Agilent scopes have an unusually high failure rate, so maybe a lot of those users moved on to Tektronix...

author: mike_kawasaki
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2013, 09:41:37 pm
content: Quote from: NiHaoMike on February 20, 2013, 08:08:28 pmNiHaoMike (does this mean you're the Chinese Mike and I'm the Japanese Mike?),Sorry to hear about any failure rates on our high-end Agilent scopes. We take great pride in our low failure rate. Our quality department tracks every failure and just reported that we have the lowest failure rate in the history of our company (since 1939). With that said, we do occasionally have failures and know it can be frustrating whenever something breaks. I actually sit right next to our Worldwide Service VP so if you have any future issues let me know. The Service Centers do a great job of solving problems, but occasionally good to know someone 'inside' the company.Tek is a great competitor and I highly respect them (and their history). I've twice worked in our scope division and had fun trying to out-innovate them with new scope features.Mike Kawasaki

author: ddavidebor
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2013, 09:57:17 pm
content: Agilent is a very big company with a solid economy. It's not one of this everytime up-and-down graph company.This things is "normal" in this times

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 21, 2013, 12:49:24 am
content: Quote from: mike_kawasaki on February 15, 2013, 04:41:38 pmI wonder what the numbers for the competitors are?It's interesting to read anonymous inside accounts of Tek & Agilent:http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Tektronix-Reviews-E643.htmhttp://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Agilent-Technologies-Reviews-E9711.htmQuoteThanks for responding on communities like this on here directly, it's little things like that earn a company a good reputation (and maintain it!).Dave.

author: olsenn
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2013, 01:28:13 am
content: In my opinion, Agilent makes the best and also probably the most (including obscure) equipment. However, they are far too expensive. It seems to me that Agilent has gone for selling a few devices for an extreme markup rather than a lot of items with little profit per item sold. I can see why; it is much easier dealing with a few businesses than thousands of students and complaining end-users, but the likes of Rigol, Instek, and other cheaper manufacturers are going to start eating bigger and bigger pieces of the cake.The problem (for Agilent at least) is, the only real reason people are paying 10 times more money for an Agilent product vs Company-X is because test instrumentation is all about inspiring confidence, and when there is a lot on the line, companies trust Agilent more than Company-X. However, as time passes, Company-X's products start to pass teh test of time, and people become more confident in them. Once this happens, no intelligent person is going to pay $100,000 for a spectrum analyzer that can be bought for $10,000.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 21, 2013, 02:05:04 am
content: Quote from: olsenn on February 21, 2013, 01:28:13 amBased on their earnings, it appears that they aren't chargingenough.QuoteI don't think Agilent have changed anything at all. They have never been in the low commodity T&M business.QuoteSure, market forces will always dictate the winner. But please cite examples of where Agilent gear costs 10 times what asimilarly specedcompetitor costs.Yes, they generally don't sell cheap gear, but it's nothing like the 10 times you claim.Dave.

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2013, 02:18:47 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on February 21, 2013, 02:05:04 am+1, its crystal clear Agilent already set their TM target market at professionals only, entering the low end or worst lowering their current product lines price significantly is just suicidal.Beside, other significant advantage that they seems to manage quite nice and sustainable is Agilent's brand awareness at pro grade TM market segment, looks like they've done great job for years since early HP era until today.See for yourself in this forum's discussion, low end market is already too saturated, like the sub $500 DSOs or handheld DMMs, even the Chinese are struggling like hell, its like dog eat dog business right now.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 21, 2013, 05:42:49 am
content: Quote from: BravoV on February 21, 2013, 02:18:47 amThey do however put a lot of R&D investment and effort into the "value" end of the segment. I think that might even be their official internal word for it?They don't try and compete at the very low end, but they do try to offer innovation and value at the budget end.Look at the innovation that went into the 2000X/3000X scopes for example, and the value offered by the U1272A meter.Whilst these units are not at the very low end of town, the bang-per-buck they offer (or initially offered) is very hard to beat by any competition. And the innovation is forcing the lower end manufacturers to lift their game and compete.One has to ask if the low end manufacturers would bother to innovate at all if they weren't trying to keep up with the innovation offered the bigger players like Agilent (and (previously) Tek as well)?Dave.

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2013, 06:37:36 am
content: Quote from: olsenn on February 21, 2013, 01:28:13 amIn my experience for both Rigol and Instek I can not get sufficient service in Europe. And I don't care if there is Rigol distributor in the US doing what should be Rigol's job. That distributor is doing nothing for me.QuoteAnd they pay for reliability, for continuity. And for service and support - if you are a business (local Agilent gets a bit arrogant if I approach them not as an engineer in the name of my employer, but as a private person).I just wish Agilent would get the HP name back. The current HP just doesn't deserve that name. And when Agilent gets the name back they could sell the Agilent name to where it belongs, a pharmaceutical company to name a laxative ...

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2013, 03:38:20 pm
content: Working in a company that is a customer for instrumentation products, I can tell that times have changed due to the overall economy - before I could not spot anything different than HP/Agilent, Fluke, R&S, etc. in all labs I visited/worked. However, nowadays I start to spot here and there some BK Precision, Rigol and other brands for the non-essential/pedestrian jobs.With a tighter budget, when you have to commission a project you end up having to make hard decisions on equipment purchasing, thus translating to a potential loss of revenue for the more traditional brands. That and the fact the newer brands have been improving the specifications of their equipment as well.Obviously the traditional brands still have 100% presence in the very specific and bleeding edge tasks - fruit of their innovation.

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2013, 03:54:17 pm
content: Quote from: Bored@Work on February 21, 2013, 06:37:36 amAnd I thought I was the only one who found it "pharmaceutical".

author: Rick Law
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2013, 10:48:37 pm
content: Quote from: Bored@Work on February 21, 2013, 06:37:36 amActually, I still think of Agilent as HP (ie: the "good" I associated with HP was transferred to Agilent). The current HP I don't think much of at all. Early generation Hp computers (such as the HP3000) were ground setting if not ground breaking. Lately, Hp computers are...shall we just say unremarkable.I would bet Agilent will out survive the current HP.