Beckman Coulter

The company was founded by Caltech professor Arnold O. Beckman in 1935 as National Technical Laboratories to commercialize a pH meter that he had invented.

In the 1940s, Beckman changed the name to Arnold O. Beckman, Inc. to sell oxygen analyzers, the Helipot precision potentiometer, and spectrophotometers. In the 1950s, the company name changed to Beckman Instruments, Inc.

In 1954, Beckman Instruments acquired ultracentrifuge maker Spinco (Specialized Instruments Corp.). The Spinco division went on to design and manufacture a broad range of laboratory centrifuges.[3]

In 1955, Beckman established the seminal Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory as a division of Beckman Instruments to begin commercializing the semiconductor transistor technology invented by Caltech alumnus William Shockley. Because Shockley's aging mother lived in Palo Alto, California, the Shockley Laboratory was established in nearby Mountain View, California, and thus, "Silicon Valley" was born.

In 1961, Beckman acquired Offner Electronics, a company founded by inventor Franklin F. Offner.

In 1982, the company merged into SmithKline to form SmithKline Beckman, with Arnold Beckman as vice chairman, but regained its independence in 1989 after SmithKline merged with Beecham Group to form SmithKline Beecham (now part of GlaxoSmithKline).

In 1995, the company acquired Hybritech, Inc. from Eli Lilly.

In 1996, the company acquired the Sanofi portion of Sanofi Pasteur Diagnostics.

In 1998, the company acquired Coulter Corporation, a company founded by Wallace H. Coulter, the inventor of the Coulter counter. Beckman, thereafter, changed its name to Beckman Coulter.

By 2003, the company has more than 200,000 systems operating in laboratories around the world.[4]

In 2005, the company acquired Diagnostic Systems Laboratories (DSL) based in Webster, Texas.

In 2006, the company acquired Lumigen and Agencourt Bioscience.

In 2007, the company acquired the Flow Cytometry Business Group of Dako North America, Inc.

In 2009, the company acquired Lab-based Diagnostics business of Olympus Corporation Japan. That same year, the company moved its world headquarters from Fullerton, California to the newly renovated facility in Brea, California.[5]

In February 2011, Danaher announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Beckman Coulter.[6] On June 30, 2011, Danaher finalized the acquisition of Beckman Coulter.[7]

On September 12, 2012 Danaher acquired Iris Diagnostics and its parent company IRIS International, Inc. as leader in Urinalysis Diagnostic to further boost Danaher's Diagnostic business within Beckman Coulter.[8]

On February 1, 2015, the company finalized the acquisition of MicroScan from Siemens Healthcare.[9]

On January 3, 2019, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences announced the acquisition of Labcyte, Inc., a privately held manufacturer of acoustic liquid handlers.

On May 2, 2019, Beckman Coulter finalized their acquisition of EDC Biosciences, a privately held manufacturer of acoustic liquid handlers.[10]

Though each location specializes in distinct areas of the company, many projects are worked on by teams in multiple locations working together remotely. Besides their headquarters in Brea, California, Beckman Coulter serves worldwide & some of the major locations include

• Beckman Coulter Diagnostics
• Beckman Coulter Life Sciences
• Yahoo! - Beckman Coulter, Inc. Company Profile
• Beckman Historical Collection Science History Institute Digital Collections (Digitized corporate records of Beckman Coulter, Incorporated, as well as personal papers of American scientist and industrialist Arnold Orville Beckman)