Agilent to close nuclear magnetic resonance Business

"The NMR team has been extremely dedicated and has made many excellent contributions. However, this action is a step in ensuring that our investments are placed on higher-value life sciences, applied markets and diagnostics solutions that will continue to drive growth across the company," said Mike McMullen, president and chief operating officer, and CEO-elect Agilent will stop taking new NMR system orders immediately, but the company will continue to meet customer commitments for orders in progress and for ongoing support contracts. Agilent will continue to provide service on all installed NMR systems. The company expects that this decision will eliminate about 300 jobs, mostly within the next 12 months. The majority of the affected positions are located in Yarnton, UK, and Santa Clara, California. To cover the cost of exiting this business, Agilent will take an approximate USD 72 million restructuring charge in the fourth quarter. It expects a USD 20 million to USD 30 million decline in revenues in fiscal year 2015 due to the NMR business closure, but a positive impact of about USD 10 million in operating profit in FY15.