News Briefs (Feb. 3, 2006)

Test measurement manufacturer Agilent Technologies Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif., and Tokyo-based Yokogawa Electric Corp., a maker of industrial automation and control, test and measurement and information systems, announced that their joint venture, Yokogawa Analytical Systems, became a wholly owned subsidiary of Agilent as of Feb. 1. Yokogawa will receive approximately $106 million from this transaction, including $98 million from Agilent for its 49 percent share of the joint venture and $7.5 million in dividends. Yokogawa Analytical was founded as a joint venture in 1992 by Agilent (then part of Hewlett-Packard and 51 percent owner) and Yokogawa and makes an advanced analytical system used in gas chromatography for laboratory and other scientific applications. Yokogawa Analytical had sales of more than $160 million in fiscal 2005. Agilent says making the company a subsidiary will help it expand its market presence in Japan, while Yokogawa says that selling its share will allow it to concentrate on its core businesses, including strengthening international engineering capabilities for the industrial automation field and investing in a new semiconductor facility in Sagamihara. . . . Israel-based defense electronics company Elbit Systems Ltd. has been selected to supply 30-mm unmanned turrets and optoelectronic and electronic sub-systems for the Belgian Army's armored infantry vehicle program; the value of the contract was not disclosed. The program covers 138 vehicles out of a potential total of 242. Deliveries of Elbit's products are anticipated to take place between 2007-12. . . . ULO Optics (the new name for Umicore Laser Optics) announced its formation as an independent company. In business for 25 years, the company makes lenses, mirrors, partial reflectors and beam delivery equipment for a range of CO2 laser applications at its facility in Stevenage, UK.