Unlocking The Future – Agilent Selects Keysight As Name For Electronic Measurement Spinoff

Agilent Technologies (A) unveiled the name of its upcoming electronic measurement spinoff company as Keysight Technologies. The name is actually a combination of the words ‘key’ and ‘insight’ although dropping the ‘in’ from insight does seem to make it lose meaning. So why those two specific words? Ahhh because the new company will have the ‘ability to see what others cannot, offering the critical or key insights to understand and unlock the changing technology landscape’. Of course! While we frequently mock the naming process of these new companies, the amount of time, thought and resources devoted to this very important task is enormous. After all, your name is your identity. The Sonoma Press Democrat recently had an excellent article describing the tortuous process at Agilent, which took roughly 3 months and some consultants to whittle the 4,500 possibilities down to Keysight.

Along with a new name, Keysight will also have its very own tagline: ‘Unlocking measurement insights for 75 years.’ The 75 years hearkens back to Keysight’s origination as part of HP which was founded in 1939. There is a certain harmony in referencing Hewlett Packard (HPQ) as Agilent itself was formed back in 1999 when HPQ spun off its testing and measurement business. I wonder how silly that ’75 Years’ will end up sounding though as the company ages. Somehow ’76 Years’ or ’92 Years’ just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Management is all aboard though and Keysight’s future CEO and President Ron Nersesian believes that the ‘name captures the spirit of our organization-innovative, insightful and forward-looking…While Keysight is built on ‘firsts’ dating back to the birth of Silicon Valley, as a new company we are committed to bringing our customers a new generation of firsts-unlocking insights for them so they can in turn bring a new generation of technologies into the world.’

The new company will be based in California and the spin is expected to take place sometime in November.

Disclosure: Author holds no position in any stock mentioned.