Agilent Technologies (NYSE: A) is the actual descendant of the instrument company founded by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in 1939.

 After 60 years of existence as part of Hewlett-Packard it was spun off from HP in 1999. In that year, Agilent was an $8 billion company with about 30,000 employees, manufacturing scientific instruments, semiconductors, optical networking devices, and test equipment for telecom and wireless R&D and production.

Agilent's major product lines include:

• Test & Measurement products such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, spectrum analyzers, and electronic design automation (EDA) software
• Life Science and Chemical Analysis products such as DNA microarrays, HPLCs, and gas chromatographs
• Communications Test equipment such as LAN/WAN network analyzers
• Automated Test Systems for production semiconductor and printed circuit board test

Agilent Technologies has a robust research and development program as part of Agilent Laboratories, with active research in MEMS, nanotechnology, and Life Sciences.

Agilent Technologies has an active investment group, Agilent Ventures, which invests in high-tech start up companies. Investments include MEMX, Infinera, and Telasics.

In 2001, Agilent Technologies sold its healthcare and medical products organization to Philips Medical Systems. HP Medical Products had been the second oldest part of Hewlett-Packard, acquired in the 1950s. Only the original founding test and measurement organization was older.

In August of 2005, Agilent Technologies announced the sale of its Semiconductor Products Group, which produced light-emitting diodes, radio frequency and mixed-signal integrated circuits, to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., and Silver Lake Partners. The group now operates as Avago Technologies, an independent, privately held company. Agilent also sold its 47% stake in the light-emitting diode manufacturer Lumileds to Philips Electronics for just under $1 billion. Lumileds originally started as Hewlett-Packard's optoelectronics division.

Also in August 2005, Agilent announced a plan to spin off its semiconductor test solutions business, composed of both the system-on-chip and memory test market areas. Agilent’s target is to complete an initial public offering of the new company Verigy near mid-2006 when the spin-off is completed.

Agilent Technologies received a 100% rating on the Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign starting in 2004, the third year of the report.