ABB to acquire laser-based gas analysis company Los Gatos Research

Oct. 30, 2013

Cary, NC--ABB has agreed to acquire Los Gatos Research to add a new line of laser-based gas analyzers to ABB’s leading measurement business.

Gail Overton

LGR’s Deep Sea Gas Analyzer is deployed aboard the MBARI Ventana.

Cary, NC--Electric power and automation company ABB has agreed to acquire Los Gatos Research (LGR; Mountain View, CA) to add a new line of high-performance gas analyzers to ABB's measurement business.

The 19-year-old, nearly 40-person LGR provides analyzers and services to a wide range of customers needing real-time measurement of trace gases and isotopes for research and environmental monitoring. LGR's laser-based measurement strategies allow for non-destructive analysis of gases and liquids using Off-Axis Integrated Cavity Output Spectroscopy (OA-ICOS) that has a substantially higher sensitivity, precision and accuracy than other traditional sampling and laser-based technologies. LGR’s employees will join the global Measurement Products business unit in ABB’s Process Automation Division. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but it is expected to close in 3rd quarter 2013, subject to customary regulatory approvals. LGR’s revenues in 2013 are expected to be around $14 million dollars.

"LGR fills a gap in our technology portfolio and brings a host of new solutions that are vital to industrial customers, such as oil & gas production and transportation, combustion, emissions, power generation and environmental monitoring," said Kishore Sundararajan, global business unit manager in Measurement Products. "This technology has tremendous promise, and we look forward to combining it with our product development and channels to market."

The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 147,000 people. The company's North American operations headquartered in Cary, NC, employs more than 27,000 people.

SOURCE: ABB; http://www.abb.us/cawp/seitp202/bb5cdf982231b30685257b60004ce558.aspx

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.