Perkin Elmer

PerkinElmer, Inc.

Type	Public
Traded as	: PKI S&P 500 Component
Industry	Human health, environmental health
Founded	1937
Headquarters	Waltham, Massachusetts, U.S.
Key people	Robert Friel, Chairman, CEO, and President
Products	Analytical instruments, lab technology, diagnostics, medical imaging equipment, informatics, cord blood bank
Revenue	$2.2 billion USD (2013)
Number of employees	7,600
Website	www.perkinelmer.com

PerkinElmer, Inc., is an American multinational corporation focused in the business areas of human and environmental health, including: environmental analysis, food and consumer product safety, medical imaging, drug discovery, diagnostics, biotechnology, industrial applications, and life science research. PerkinElmer produces analytical instruments, genetic testing and diagnostic tools, medical imaging components, software, instruments, and consumables for multiple end markets.

PerkinElmer is part of the S&P 500 Index and operates in 150 countries.

Perkin-Elmer was founded in 1937 by Richard Perkin and Charles Elmer as an optical design and consulting company. In 1944, Perkin-Elmer entered the analytical-instruments business, and in the early 1990s, partnered with Cetus Corporation (and later Hoffmann-La Roche) to pioneer the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) equipment industry. Analytical-instruments business was also operated from 1954 to 2001 in Germany, by the Bodenseewerk Perkin-Elmer GmbH located in Überlingen at Lake Constance, and England (Perkin Elmer Ltd) at Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire.

EG&G began in 1931; It was started by two MIT professors, Harold Edgerton and Kenneth Germeshausen in a Boston garage. The company was originally incorporated in 1947 as EG&G.

Modern PerkinElmer traces its history back to a merger between divisions of what had been two S&P 500 companies, EG&G Inc. (formerly : EGG) of Wellesley, Massachusetts and Perkin-Elmer (formerly : PKN) of Norwalk, Connecticut. On May 28, 1999, the non-government side of EG&G Inc. purchased the Analytical Instruments Division of Perkin-Elmer, its traditional business segment, for US$425 million, also assuming the Perkin-Elmer name and forming the new PerkinElmer company, with new officers and a new Board of Directors. At the time, EG&G made products for diverse industries including automotive, medical, aerospace and photography.