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Agilent is returning to its origins as a testing-and-measuring business.
The company, which spun off from Hewlett-Packard in 2000, announced last week that it is selling off several parts of its business so that it can focus on its core competencies.
It is selling its semiconductor products business to investment groups for $2.66 billion and its stake in Lumileds Lighting to Royal Phillips Electronics for $950 million.
It also will spin off its chip-testing business next year.
Agilent Technologies executives said these moves—which will cut infrastructure costs by $450 million—will enable the company to focus solely on the $40 billion test-and-measurement market, which helped build HP into the global company it is today.
Company officials also said they will be laying off 1,300 of Agilents 28,000-member work force.