Keysight Technologies, Inc. is an American company that manufactures electronics test and measurement equipment and software. The name is a blend of ''key'' and ''insight''. The company was formed as a spin-off of

Agilent Technologies Agilent Technologies, Inc. is an American global company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, that provides instruments, software, services, and consumables for laboratories. Agilent was established in 1999 as a spin-off from Hewlett-Packar ...

, which inherited and rebranded the test and measurement product lines developed and produced from the late 1960s to the turn of the millennium by

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

's Test & Measurement division.

Products

Keysight's products include hardware and software for benchtop, modular, and field instruments. Instruments include

oscilloscope An oscilloscope (formerly known as an oscillograph, informally scope or O-scope) is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying voltages of one or more signals as a function of time. Their main purpose is capturing i ...

multimeter A multimeter (also known as a multi-tester, volt-ohm-milliammeter, volt-ohmmeter or VOM, avometer or ampere-volt-ohmmeter) is a measuring instrument that can measure multiple electrical properties. A typical multimeter can measure voltage, elec ...

logic analyzer A logic analyzer is an electronic instrument that captures and displays multiple logic signals from a digital system or digital circuit. A logic analyzer may convert the capture into timing diagrams, protocol decodes, state machine traces, op ...

signal generator A signal generator is one of a class of Electronics, electronic devices that generates electrical signals with set properties of amplitude, frequency, and wave shape. These generated signals are used as a stimulus for electronic measurements, typ ...

spectrum analyzer A spectrum analyzer measures the magnitude of an input signal versus frequency within the full frequency range of the instrument. The primary use is to measure the power of the spectrum of known and unknown signals. The input signal that most co ...

s, vector network analyzers, atomic force microscopes (AFM),

automated optical inspection Automated optical inspection (AOI) is an automated visual inspection of printed circuit board (PCB) (or LCD, transistor) manufacture where a camera machine vision, autonomously scans the device under test for both catastrophic failure (e.g. missin ...

automated X-ray inspection Automated inspection (AXI) is a technology based on the same principles as automated optical inspection (AOI). It uses as its source, instead of visible light, to automatically inspect features, which are typically hidden from view. Automated ...

( 5DX), in-circuit testers,

power supplies A power supply is an electrical device that supplies electric power to an electrical load. The main purpose of a power supply is to convert electric current from a source to the correct voltage, current, and frequency to power the load. As a r ...

tunable laser A tunable laser is a laser whose wavelength of operation can be altered in a controlled manner. While all active laser medium, laser gain media allow small shifts in output wavelength, only a few types of lasers allow continuous tuning over a sign ...

optical power meter An optical power meter (OPM) is a device used to measure the power in an optical signal. The term usually refers to a device for testing average power in fiber optic systems. Other general purpose light power measuring devices are usually called rad ...

s, wavelength-meters, electro-optic converters, optical modulation analyzers and handheld tools. In addition, it produces

electronic design automation Electronic design automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-aided design (ECAD), is a category of software tools for designing Electronics, electronic systems such as integrated circuits and printed circuit boards. The tools wo ...

(EDA) software (

PathWave Design PathWave Design is a division of Keysight Technologies that was formerly called EEsof ( ; electronic engineering software). It is a provider of electronic design automation (EDA) software that helps engineers design products such as cellular phon ...

division). It mainly serves the telecommunications, aerospace/defense, industrial, computer, and semiconductor industries.

History

Acquisitions

Keysight acquired British electronic measurement instrument maker

Anite Anite is a supplier of test and measurement software to the international wireless market. It provides testing, measurement, optimisation and analytics systems based on its specialist sector knowledge and its proprietary software and hardware pr ...

in 2015 for £388 million ($607 million). In 2017, Keysight acquired data technology company

Ixia ''Ixia'' is a genus of cormous plants native to South Africa from the family Iridaceae. Some of them are known as the corn lily. Some distinctive traits include sword-like leaves and long wiry stems with star-shaped flowers. It usually prefers w ...

for about $1.6 billion in cash. The company acquired British software testing company

Eggplant Software Eggplant Software, Inc., was a software testing and monitoring company. Eggplant was a global company that served more than 650 enterprise customers in over 30 countries. Eggplant had offices in London, Boulder, Colorado, Philadelphia, and B ...

from

The Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group Inc. is an American multinational company with operations in private equity, alternative asset management and financial services. As of 2023, the company had $426 billion of assets under management. Carlyle specializes in ...

for $330 million in 2020. From 2019 to 2021, the company focused on 5G, introducing advanced products such as the Infiniium UXR-Series oscilloscopes. In 2023, the company acquired France-based

ESI Group ESI Group provides virtual prototyping software that simulates a product's behavior during testing, manufacturing and real-life use. Engineers in a variety of industries use its software to evaluate the performance of proposed designs in the ear ...

for approximately $1 billion. In 2024, Keysight outbid

Viavi Solutions Viavi Solutions Inc. (stylized VIAVI Solutions), formerly part of JDS Uniphase Corporation (JDSU), is an American network test, measurement and assurance technology company based in Chandler, Arizona. The company manufactures testing and monito ...

to acquire British telecommunications testing company

Spirent Spirent Communications plc is a British-American multinational telecommunications testing company headquartered in Crawley, West Sussex, in the United Kingdom. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Ind ...

for $1.5 billion.

Controversies

On August 3, 2021, Keysight entered into a Consent Agreement with the

Directorate of Defense Trade Controls The Bureau of Political-Military Affairs' Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) is the organization within the U.S. Department of State responsible for enforcing the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). In accordance with 22. ...

Bureau of Political-Military Affairs The Bureau of Political-Military Affairs (PM) is an agency within the United States Department of State that bridges the Department of State with the Department of Defense. It provides policy in the areas of international security, security assist ...

Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs ...

("DTCC") to resolve alleged violations of the

Arms Export Control Act The Arms Export Control Act of 1976 (Title II of , codified at ) gives the President of the United States the authority to control the import and export of defense articles and defense services. The H.R. 13680 legislation was passed by the 94th ...

and the

International Traffic in Arms Regulations International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) is a set of U.S. Department of State regulations that control the export of defense and military technologies to safeguard national security and further its foreign policy objectives. Overvi ...

("ITAR"). Pursuant to the Consent Agreement, Keysight was assessed a penalty of $6.6 million to be paid over three years, $2.5 million of which was suspended and designated for remediation activities over three years, including employment of a special compliance officer. The suspended portion of the penalty was satisfied by amounts spent on qualifying compliance activities. On April 23, 2024, Keysight made the final payment on the penalty, bringing the total amount paid to $4.1 million. On May 3, 2024, Keysight submitted a certification letter to the DTCC certifying that it had implemented all aspects of the Consent Agreement and that the company’s compliance program is adequate to identify, prevent, detect, correct, and report violations of the ITAR.

Research and development

From its launch in 2014 until 2020, Keysight increased its investment in R&D from approximately 12% to 16%, a percentage increase that represented almost a doubling of the investment in absolute dollars.

Awards

Keysight won the 2014 Global Frost & Sullivan award for market leadership with $300 million in instrumentation software revenue. The citation states R&D investment of 12% of revenue ($365 million in 2013) as an important factor. In recent years, Keysight received a ranking of #46 on Forbes list of “American’s Best Midsize Companies.” Keysight was recently ranked #46 on Fortune's 2022 100 Best Companies to Work for.

References

External links

*
Top 12 public test and measurement companies by revenue

New Keysight CEO kicks electronic measurement company into overdrive
{{Authority control Electronics companies established in 2014 American companies established in 2014 Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Electronic test equipment manufacturers Electronics companies of the United States Hewlett-Packard Instrument-making corporations Corporate spin-offs Power supply manufacturers Manufacturing companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Companies based in Santa Rosa, California