Agilent's ETM business has new name

[pachuma]

Agilent's Electronic Test and Measurement business has new name.
Check it out Keysight Technologies:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/4nPndXEQ0v4?autoplay=1&rel=0&wmode=transparent

http://www.keysight.com/

[dr.diesel]

The name doesn't exactly inspire any confidence, or anything new, I will continue to use Agilent.

[KJDS]

Poor effort really, the best anagram of Keysight is Get Hi Sky.

[dr.diesel]

Poor effort really, the best anagram of Keysight is Get Hi Sky.

Remind me of:

[free_electron]

i'll keep calling it HP or Agilent. i dont like this new "Keithleyhindsight" new name

[peter.mitchell]

Whats this about bill and dave?

[c4757p]

Keysight.

What a horrible fart of a name. Sounds like a marketroid with buzzword Tourette's having a seizure. What the hell is "key sight" even supposed to mean?

I like the logo though. Agilent's always seemed to more suit their life sciences division.

[SeanB]

Nice logo, and the name is vaguely focussing through the keyhole on the core competency of the T&M division of making test and measurement stuff that works, lasts and is easy to use.




Choose one......

[Dongulus]

Keysight ...
Sounds like a marketroid with buzzword Tourette's having a seizure.

To be fair, Agilent sounds that way too.
I recall something in some training material for an internship with them years ago about the origin of the name Agilent. The explanation was a bunch of management BS full of wank words like "synergy". Keysight is at least more evocative of what their business area is compared to Agilent. Same with the logo, I didn't ever really get the "Spark of Insight" logo as they call it.

All in all, I think it could have been worse. I don't expect to see any Keysight making it into the lab any time soon so I'll probably forget the name change even exists.

[Dave]

Ghey kits.

There's your anagram.

Terrible name, it really is.
"Hey, is that a new multimeter I see on your bench?" "Yeah, it's a Keysight." Just awful.

[echen1024]

I prefer Agilent or HP. Hey, have you seen my new Keysight 6.5 digit DMM? God that sounds awful 

[nctnico]

Don't worry. Soon it will be plastered over by 'Rigol' (which sounds familiar to a character from the sci-fi series Farscape BTW).

[Rufus]

Ghey kits.

Geky shit.

[Bored@Work]

Lame. But the name only needs to last until they are sold to someone else.

[Maxlor]

It does sound stupid. But wait until their marketing team gets to name their new products. I bet "Keysight" will look good in comparison. I'm anticipating... the Visisignal 3000! The Intellimeas 6000! The Ultraworks 9000! You know, because they put the customer first when come up with buzzwnames!

[wilheldp]

I never have understood why people try to implement a name change when they are the 800 pound gorilla in a market.  A ton of people still call Agilent gear Hewlett Packard gear, and now it will have a third name. 

[mike1305]

I never have understood why people try to implement a name change when they are the 800 pound gorilla in a market.  A ton of people still call Agilent gear Hewlett Packard gear, and now it will have a third name.

Investors.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-19/agilent-technologies-to-split-into-two-public-companies.html

[Dr. Frank]

blach!

Remember, that measurement instruments business was the origin of the company once been named HP..

Bill & Dave will rotate in their graves.

Hopefully, the computer business goes bankrupt, so they can take over the original name again.

[Maxlor]

So much for "customer first."

[Rory]

Makes me think they're in cahoots with NSA - Like peeking through a key hole - Keysight.

[Jon86]

Meh, it's still Agilent to me.

[EEVblog]

I prefer Agilent or HP. Hey, have you seen my new Keysight 6.5 digit DMM? God that sounds awful 

That pretty much sums it up I think.
I didn't much care for Agilent, but the name did kind of at least sound professional from the get-go as a word on it's own, without the "Technologies" part.
Keysight sounds very low rent and try hard as a word on it's own 

[Jon86]

I prefer Agilent or HP. Hey, have you seen my new Keysight 6.5 digit DMM? God that sounds awful 

That pretty much sums it up I think.
I didn't much care for Agilent, but the name did kind of at least sound professional from the get-go as a word on it's own, without the "Technologies" part.
Keysight sounds very low rent and try hard as a word on it's own 

Keysight just sounds like a weird avant-garde mashup of unrelated words that makes no sense and sounds like some chinky-chonky manufacturer's name. Not a huge professional electronics company.

[Fsck]

I never have understood why people try to implement a name change when they are the 800 pound gorilla in a market.  A ton of people still call Agilent gear Hewlett Packard gear, and now it will have a third name. 

almost all of my gear is old, so all HP branded. I feel bad for anyone who has to deal with a bunch of "Keysight" branded equipment. also, their website is hideous.

[Maxlor]

Inspired by this topic, I thought about names that convey trustworthiness. It occurred to me that the names I like best are people's names.

Hewlett-Packard. Siemens. Fluke. Braun. Philips. Dell. There were real people standing behind those corporations, and they were feeling good enough about their products to stand for them with their own name. It gives the name a certain weight, I think, even if the original founder (or his ideals) is no longer present today.

A marketing-devised name like Keysight however feels as exchangeable as underwear. And the inherent fear is that the name will be exchanged in case of trouble, because it might be easier than fixing whatever issues there are.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Just add a space and it sounds just like a Chinese no-name brand "Key Sight Technologies"

[kxenos]

That's the original keysight...
http://www.keysightinc.com/index.html
 
Fail!!!

[echen1024]

Just add a space and it sounds just like a Chinese no-name brand "Key Sight Technologies"

Herro. Wercum to Keysight Teknorogies.

[EEVblog]

Just add a space and it sounds just like a Chinese no-name brand "Key Sight Technologies"

Might as well have been "Happy Lucky Keysight Technologies" 

[echen1024]

That's the original keysight...
http://www.keysightinc.com/index.html
 
Fail!!!

Holy shit that powerball decoder.

[MartinX]

They should have changed the name back to Hewlett Packard.

[Bored@Work]

Dear Friend,

Happy Lucky Keysight Lottery is pleased to inform you that your Email was among the 20 lucky winners who won £ 1,000,000.00 GBP each in promoting the Keysight. Your Email was attached to ticket number (2PYUK2013) and ballot number (UK: 51322010/13) which subsequently won the lottery in category (B).

For more information Please contact:
Name: Mr Muhtar Kent
Email: muhtar_kent@...

Congratulations
Happy Lucky Keysight Team 2013

[skipjackrc4]

Ugh.  Still "The Company Formerly Known as the Company Formerly Known as HP" for me.  I guess I'm in the minority, but I rather liked "Agilent".

[c4757p]

"Agilent" sounds like a drug to me. In particular, it is a laxative: It makes your bowels agile.

[mikeselectricstuff]

If anyone's up for some mischief, keyshite.com appears to be available.....

[echen1024]

If anyone's up for some mischief, keyshite.com appears to be available.....

We should purchase it and use it as a site to protest the new Keysight name

[jucole]

lol! - is it really such a big deal?   who cares! - I can only afford stuff from the 1980's anyway! 

[xrunner]

Keysight? That's a horrible name. It's just awful. 

[alex.forencich]

http://www.agilent.com/about/newsroom/presrel/2014/07jan-gp14001.html

http://www.keysight.com/en/

It will be interesting to see how this pans out.  Did they just pick the name because they could get their hands on the .com domain, I wonder? 

[dr.diesel]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/agilent's-etm-business-has-new-name/

[peter.mitchell]

It sounds like the name of a sci fi american info sec company,  "keysight will protect your assets. .."

[notsob]

and what sort of horrible logo/decal will they come up with

[peter.mitchell]

and what sort of horrible logo/decal will they come up with

Its not so bad,  its a wave-ish thingo. However I swear I've seen it before.

[Stonent]

First thing I thought of:

[c4757p]

First thing I thought of:

Oddly, I like it more in light of this.

[vk6zgo]

The funny thing is they are overlooking a better name every time they rename the ETM division.
Just call it ETM,for Pete's sake!
Modify the old HP logo,with etm instead of hp so people can recognise its origins.

[TooOldForThis]

Perhaps marketing came up with a list of two dozen names ordered from best to worst but upper management confused it for a countdown to the best list.

[Stonent]

Looks like they had other logo ideas in mind as well.  I rather like the DNA one on the left, maybe at one point they considered transferring Agilent to the test division and use Keysight for life science?

https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=968&q=keysight&oq=keysight&gs_l=img.3..0i10i24l2.1576.2969.0.4283.8.8.0.0.0.0.119.734.4j4.8.0....0...1ac.1.32.img..1.7.617.sLhD8HZJ9k8#imgdii=_

[JoannaK]

Í do like the wave logo, it looks instrumenty. 

But for the name, seriously? Well, I know that lots of good names are taken and at least it's not something like TrusrFire (for lithium batteries).

[don.r]

Could have just called it Won Hung Lo and be done with it. I wonder how much the consultancy was paid for this name change? I expect many Keylite and Kaysight brands to start popping up. Does Sony not want their Walkman symbol back?

[Fsck]

Could have just called it Won Hung Lo and be done with it. I wonder how much the consultancy was paid for this name change? I expect many Keylite and Kaysight brands to start popping up. Does Sony not want their Walkman symbol back?

I think Wun Hung Lo Technologies is clearer and better sounding.

[EEVblog]

lol! - is it really such a big deal?

Yes, it's a real big deal. Many generations of engineers grew up and worked with and loved HP gear all their lives. The Agilent name change sucked, and even after a decade many still affectionately call them HP. This new name change is even shittier.

[don.r]

lol! - is it really such a big deal?

Yes, it's a real big deal. Many generations of engineers grew up and worked with and loved HP gear all their lives. The Agilent name change sucked, and even after a decade many still affectionately call them HP. This new name change is even shittier.

There may be a market there for HP stick on labels for Agilent and Wun Hung Lo Keysight equipment.

[Fsck]

lol! - is it really such a big deal?

Yes, it's a real big deal. Many generations of engineers grew up and worked with and loved HP gear all their lives. The Agilent name change sucked, and even after a decade many still affectionately call them HP. This new name change is even shittier.

There may be a market there for HP stick on labels for Agilent and Wun Hung Lo Keysight equipment.

wouldn't those be illegal since you're misusing their trademark? (or whatever legal crap is involved)

[EEVblog]

Looks like they had other logo ideas in mind as well.
https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=968&q=keysight&oq=keysight&gs_l=img.3..0i10i24l2.1576.2969.0.4283.8.8.0.0.0.0.119.734.4j4.8.0....0...1ac.1.32.img..1.7.617.sLhD8HZJ9k8#imgdii=_

Nice find.

http://www.trademarkia.com/correspondent-andrew-roppel-1-185192
http://www.trademarkia.com/keysight-technologies-86131209.html

[Bored@Work]

Looks like they had other logo ideas in mind as well.
https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=968&q=keysight&oq=keysight&gs_l=img.3..0i10i24l2.1576.2969.0.4283.8.8.0.0.0.0.119.734.4j4.8.0....0...1ac.1.32.img..1.7.617.sLhD8HZJ9k8#imgdii=_

Nice find
...
http://www.trademarkia.com/correspondent-andrew-roppel-1-185192
http://www.trademarkia.com/keysight-technologies-86131209.html

And other names. The same lawyer registered

Altogon
Altogon Technologies
Vectelo
Vectelo Technologies
Altagon
Altagon Tech
Sightshift
Sightshift Tech
Stormkey
Boldsight
Keyhawk
Boldfire

Maybe some were only to disguise the real application. Alt least let's hope so. Boldfire? Keyhawk? RLY?

Would I had to choose from that list I would have selected Altagon. Same suckieness factor as Agilent.

[jancumps]

That TM is submitted end November and not yet validated.

[SeanB]

Looks like the marketing team thought up a name, did a search on the US trademark website under Test and Measurement and did not think of doing a search globally, or doing so world wide ( quite a failure on the part of an international company) to check there are not other companies with that name.

They frankly would be better off taking the HP logo, adding the new one under it in a box and calling themselves HP ETM, an independent division of Hewlett Packard Inc.

Not registered at all in the world, had brand recognition, and I will allow them to use this brand for a very low cost. Fee available on request.

[EEVblog]

They frankly would be better off taking the HP logo, adding the new one under it in a box and calling themselves HP ETM, an independent division of Hewlett Packard Inc.

But Agilent legally have nothing at all to do with HP any more. They really did split into two different companies.
But yes, if I was them I would have gone back to the HP name in some form, and tried to acquire the old logo rights, or do a new one that's reminiscent.

[Stonent]

This is a brand page for the KEYSIGHT TECHNOLOGIES trademark by Corundum Holdings, LLC in Wilmington, DE, 19808. Write a review about a product or service associated with this KEYSIGHT TECHNOLOGIES trademark. Or, contact the owner Corundum Holdings, LLC of the KEYSIGHT TECHNOLOGIES trademark by filing a request to communicate with the Legal Correspondent for licensing, use, and/or questions related to the KEYSIGHT TECHNOLOGIES trademark.
Status Update! On Thursday, December 12, 2013, status on the KEYSIGHT TECHNOLOGIES trademark changed to NEW APPLICATION - RECORD INITIALIZED NOT ASSIGNED TO EXAMINER.

Something very telling here... A holding company out of Delaware. For those who are outside the US, Delaware is home to many companies that don't exist in Delaware.

For example, Agilent which is in Palo Alto, could open a P.O. Box in Delaware and incorporate as a Delaware corporation and bypass corporate taxes since Delaware does not tax corporations.

There are lots of radio ads I hear for companies offering to incorporate you in Nevada or Delaware so you can live without paying state taxes.

When Walt Disney was planning on building Disney World in Florida, he formed a holding company that had no references to Disney and bought up land from whomever would sell in the area. If they had known it was being sold to Disney, they would have jacked up their prices.

[BravoV]

Would I had to choose from that list I would have selected Altagon. Same suckieness factor as Agilent.

Its obvious those medical/lab division is making the real money and probably feeding the whole company, hence keeping the Agilent name, while T&M division got sour and kicked out and separated, and will have to start all over again to establish the brand name from the scratch.

Like above B@W examples: Altogon, Vectelo, Altagon , its obvious these sound so Western, compared to Keysight, Sightshift, Stormkey, Boldsight, Keyhawk, Boldfire, to me these sound or taste more friendlier to "Oriental" ears  ?   

A preparation to attract potential Chinese buyers ?   

Edit : Another thought, what happened to T&M market if Danaher bought this Keysight ? 

[Stonent]

My choices:
1. Weyland-Yutani
2. The Umbrella Corporation
3. LexCorp
4. Omni Consumer Products
5. Cyberdyne Systems
6. Shinra Corporation
7. Stark Industries
8. Soylent Corp.
9. MomCorp
10. Initech
11. Aperture Labs
12. InGen
13. Reynholm Industries
14. Ewing Industries
15. Recall Corporation
16. Nakatomi Corporation
17. Contoso
18. Union Aerospace
19. Yoyoydyne
20. Magitech Industries

[mos6502]

Don't forget

Supreme Macaroni Co.

[BravoV]

Potential new name ...

M.O.A.R.  (after the acquisition by (M)astech (O)won (A)tten (R)igol consortium)

[Stonent]

Potential new name ... M.O.A.R.  (after the acquisition by (M)astech (O)won (A)tten (R)igol consortium)

[BravoV]

Another one ...

R.A.M.B.O.    (after the acquisition by (R)igol (A)tten (M)astech (B)rymen (O)won consortium)

[amyk]

Like above B@W examples: Altogon, Vectelo, Altagon , its obvious these sound so Western, compared to Keysight, Sightshift, Stormkey, Boldsight, Keyhawk, Boldfire, to me these sound or taste more friendlier to "Oriental" ears  ?   

"Boldfire" sounds like something the 18650 recyclers would use...

[peter.mitchell]

Edit : Another thought, what happened to T&M market if Danaher bought this Keysight ? 

Competition laws.

....list...

Acme Technologies
Vandelay Industries

[BravoV]

Like above B@W examples: Altogon, Vectelo, Altagon , its obvious these sound so Western, compared to Keysight, Sightshift, Stormkey, Boldsight, Keyhawk, Boldfire, to me these sound or taste more friendlier to "Oriental" ears  ?   

"Boldfire" sounds like something the 18650 recyclers would use...

Yup, after seeing like SureFire, TrueFire, thats definitely a good one.   

[BravoV]

Edit : Another thought, what happened to T&M market if Danaher bought this Keysight ? 

Competition laws.

Meh , no biggy ... few calls at those boys at Pentagon + lobby at few senators, a special closed non public Senate hearing committee with Danaher that may start with something sounds similar with these ....

".... trust me Senators, you don't want these MOAR or RAMBO brands equipments to be installed in our sub-marines, radar, military bases etc, and also our puppies allies military premises like the Oz, Canuck, Britton etc ... " 

[vk6zgo]

Do "Union Aerospace" Astronauts have to show their card before they can enter the Spacecraft?

[nctnico]

And then what? Slap a Tektronix badge on an Agilent scope? What good would that do to Danaher other than eliminating a competing brand which already killed itself?
I think the buyer of Agilent T&M is already known. I put my money R&S or Rigol.

[baljemmett]

And other names. The same lawyer registered

Altogon
Altogon Technologies
Vectelo
Vectelo Technologies

Reading too quickly, I had to backtrack and make sure that didn't say "Alvogon Technologies".  Perhaps their T&M division has been scheduled for demolition to make way for a new hyperspace bypass...

[Rufus]

Investors.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-19/agilent-technologies-to-split-into-two-public-companies.html

So a company is split to avoid confusing investors with two business areas - fair enough but did it really require a complete name change? What is wrong with say companies called Agilent LS and Agilent TM?

Are investors stupid enough to be confused by similar names?

[SgtRock]

Greetings EEVBees:

--The name reminds me of an old Bob and Ray routine about the local news show called "Keywitness News" and Belinda Gorney the news reporter that drove the Keywitness News station wagon with a big key painted on the side. As Mark Twain would say "It has kind of a simpering monkey with a parasol gait to it."

"All cats are grey in the dark" [From "In Praise of Older Women"]
Benjamin Franklin  1706 - 1790

Best Regards
Clear Ether

[echen1024]

Would I had to choose from that list I would have selected Altagon. Same suckieness factor as Agilent.

Its obvious those medical/lab division is making the real money and probably feeding the whole company, hence keeping the Agilent name, while T&M division got sour and kicked out and separated, and will have to start all over again to establish the brand name from the scratch.

Like above B@W examples: Altogon, Vectelo, Altagon , its obvious these sound so Western, compared to Keysight, Sightshift, Stormkey, Boldsight, Keyhawk, Boldfire, to me these sound or taste more friendlier to "Oriental" ears  ?   

A preparation to attract potential Chinese buyers ?   

Edit : Another thought, what happened to T&M market if Danaher bought this Keysight ? 

It would be a shitstorm. But by that time antitrusts would be filed quite soon.

[BravoV]

And then what? Slap a Tektronix badge on an Agilent scope? What good would that do to Danaher other than eliminating a competing brand which already killed itself?

They don't care, look at Fluke vs Keithley vs Tektronix, and many other Danaher's divisions that playing and fighting in the same or similar business field.

Look how Danaher performs in stock market in ten years (that includes the period of acquisition of Fluke, Tektronix, Keithley etc) vs Agilent -> Danaher vs Agilent stock market performance in last 10 years

I think the buyer of Agilent T&M is already known. I put my money R&S or Rigol.

Your money there even they're seven digits sum does not and will not impress huge enterprise like Danaher. Its like a drop of your tear in the ocean. 

The real money came from military contracts, let alone Uncle Sam's military budget, see Dave's video on scoring ex Oz military gadgets and imagine the annual spending just from Oz alone. Sometimes this kind of deal may feed the enterprise for years or even decades once secured. Remember, such deal is not only for procurement for new devices, most of the times includes long term relationship like maintenance, calibration, update path and etc.

The whining on putting the money at R&S or Rigol means nothing to these big boy.

It would be a shitstorm. But by that time antitrusts would be filed quite soon.

What antitrusts ? To hell with that, national (+ US allies) military security and integrity comes first.

Since you're American, trust me, you don't want those "MOAR" or "RAMBO" employees can easily grab the exotic technologies that Agilent (Keysight) have, and bring them back to China. Or worst, having their employees work on military premises doing instalation, maintenance or calibration.

This anti trusts thingy only applicable to those juveniles like Microsoft, Apple and etc, not these big boys in military domain. 

[MrAureliusR]

On a more serious note, I believe this could actually go quite badly. As mentioned before, it really does sound like an eBay cheapie special multimeter. That kind of brand association can only be bad.

Who the heck actually thought it sounded good?

From the Agilent e-mail:

What Keysight means.
Keysight is built from two English words: key, meaning indispensable or essential, a means of access; and insight, meaning the power of seeing, having vision and perception. The name connotes seeing what others cannot, having the critical or key insight to understand and unlock the changing technology landscape.

The name Keysight reflects our rich heritage–a direct line from both Hewlett-Packard's standards of integrity and innovation and Agilent's premier measurement business. We believe our new name captures the spirit of our organization and the DNA of our employees –innovative, insightful and forward-looking.

Keysight is built on 'firsts' dating back to the birth of HP and Silicon Valley 75 years ago this year, and as a new company we are committed to bringing you a new generation of firsts – unlocking insights for you so you can in turn bring a new generation of technologies into the world.

[Stonent]

How about:

Keysight a MicSig company.

[cidcorp]

Not that Agilent's test equipment identity change has a profound change on my life, but just curious if anyone actually likes the name?

Chris


Edit: My Bad, didn't realize this thread started yesterday.  My question is now a little late, and I'll simply read the thread.  ;-)

[smoothtalker]

Omg.. Agilent. Are you trying to improve Fluke's chance of becoming the monopoly? are we are going to see "Designed by Keysight - Made in China" ??

[kfitch42]

I think they were going for a IBM/HAL thing

H+3=K
P+3=S

But, this is only they second rename so they should have gone with +2

JR

JokeReally
JustResistors
JunkReseller

[KF5OBS]

From the E-Mail I just got from Agilent:

What Keysight means.
Keysight is built from two English words: key, meaning indispensable or essential, a means of access; and insight, meaning the power of seeing, having vision and perception. The name connotes seeing what others cannot, having the critical or key insight to understand and unlock the changing technology landscape.

The name Keysight reflects our rich heritage–a direct line from both Hewlett-Packard's standards of integrity and innovation and Agilent's premier measurement business. We believe our new name captures the spirit of our organization and the DNA of our employees –innovative, insightful and forward-looking.

Keysight is built on 'firsts' dating back to the birth of HP and Silicon Valley 75 years ago this year, and as a new company we are committed to bringing you a new generation of firsts – unlocking insights for you so you can in turn bring a new generation of technologies into the world.

[Deepak]

Well that's unfortunate.

I quite liked the ETM suggestion (the marketing writes itself - "ETM, we're the name in electronic test and measurement").

[FrankBuss]

From the Agilent e-mail:

I got this eMail, too. Good text for bullshit bingo: indispensable, check. essential, check. excited, check. team, check. partnership: Bingo!

I guess I will never understand marketing. And always fun when they sell features without discussing it first with the developers.

[JoeyP]

Just add a space and it sounds just like a Chinese no-name brand "Key Sight Technologies"

My first though exactly! What a horribly dumb, cheap sounding name! Definitely sounds like a company that re-brands random chinese crap like Hantek.

Perhaps marketing came up with a list of two dozen names ordered from best to worst but upper management confused it for a countdown to the best list.

Maybe not far off. I replied to the email and asked them if they'd had a competition to see who could come up with the dumbest sounding name. Pretty sure that account is full of such emails right about now.

Just when I was about to give in and start calling them Agilent instead of hp, I have an even dumber name to get used to. It may take decades!

[tcleavela]

If the new company establishes a record of quality and innovation then who gives a damn what the name is? Keysight's immediate (say 3 year) challenge will be to establish a brand identity; that would be the case no matter what name had been chosen. If they deliver the goods then the name will command respect. If they don't, it won't. Good luck to the Keysight team.

[EEVblog]

I just blogged this:
http://www.eevblog.com/2014/01/09/hp-err-agilent-has-a-new-name/

[SWB]

... and here's who Agilent paid to come up with "Keysight":

http://catchwordbranding.com/catchthis/in-the-news/unlocking-technology-insights-with-keysight-agilents-new-baby/

[AndreasF]

I just blogged this:
http://www.eevblog.com/2014/01/09/hp-err-agilent-has-a-new-name/

...and promptly called it "Keystone" once!

So what’s in store for Keystone Technologies?

 

[KF5OBS]

... and here's who Agilent paid to come up with "Keysight":

http://catchwordbranding.com/catchthis/in-the-news/unlocking-technology-insights-with-keysight-agilents-new-baby/

I truly hope they didn't get more than $ 1.50. well, maybe $ 3.00 for effort including expenses. Why doesn't anyone want to pay me for a stupid idea? I should put that on my website, "Stupid idea, $ 500 - $ 5 000 000, depending on degree of stupidity".

[N2IXK]

Back in the late 50s into the mid-late 60s, HP had a division called "Dymec", to produce automated test equipment, custom instrumentation, systems integration, etc.  Their logo was VERY interesting--the HP logo of the day, turned upside down so the lower case "hp" became a lower case "dy"!

Maybe they should have resurrected the Dymec name/logo, rather than this "Keysight" garbage?

[FJV]

So a company spends years of effort and tons of money to get brand recognition, identity and loyalty only to have all that money and effort pissed away, because some marketing people feel the urge to do something to justify their paycheck.

[nctnico]

I just blogged this:
http://www.eevblog.com/2014/01/09/hp-err-agilent-has-a-new-name/

I love the tripple facepalm 

[marshallh]

The logo is great, and the name ain't bad. They could've done far worse.

I think in a few years' time it won't sound so bad.

[KF5OBS]

So a company spends years of effort and tons of money to get brand recognition, identity and loyalty only to have all that money and effort pissed away, because some marketing people feel the urge to do something to justify their paycheck.

It's not that, it's not unlikely that this name change is giving us a head up that Agilent wants to sell their T&M branch. Name change almost always means owner or strong structural change. So I'm sure they're cooking up something.

[EEVblog]

... and here's who Agilent paid to come up with "Keysight":
http://catchwordbranding.com/catchthis/in-the-news/unlocking-technology-insights-with-keysight-agilents-new-baby/

Oh wow.
Nice find.

[EEVblog]

So a company spends years of effort and tons of money to get brand recognition, identity and loyalty only to have all that money and effort pissed away, because some marketing people feel the urge to do something to justify their paycheck.

Not quite.
The split was forced by sharemarket decisions, as was the forced name change of the T&M division. Once that decision was made, the craziness began.

[Someone]

Its obvious those medical/lab division is making the real money and probably feeding the whole company, hence keeping the Agilent name, while T&M division got sour and kicked out and separated, and will have to start all over again to establish the brand name from the scratch.

Have a look back through their publicly available financial information, its split into the 3 business areas.

Just for a quick example is the most recent FY13 result:

	Income	Gross Margin	ROIC
LSG	$377M	54.3%	8.25%
CAG	$355M	51.7%	20%
EMG	$544M	56.9%	31.5%

The EMG group makes solid returns but they have cyclic profits that are unpredictable if you look back over their history, the other two segments are very stable in their revenue. The behemoth continues with its low ROIC groups coasting along and spins out the profitable and currently attractive to investors EMG.

Its Agilent (HP) labs who will suffer the most from the split losing even more of their contact with the broad technology base HP (then Agilent) had at its disposal. For instance when Avago spun out and took all the semiconductor/optoelectronic tech.

[xrunner]

... and here's who Agilent paid to come up with "Keysight":

http://catchwordbranding.com/catchthis/in-the-news/unlocking-technology-insights-with-keysight-agilents-new-baby/

In Agilent’s case, this meant developing over 5,000 names exploring different themes, constructions, and approaches. After many rounds of selection (and elimination), Keysight emerged the winner.

Out of 5,000 names, Keysight was the best one they could come up with?

[mikeselectricstuff]

... and here's who Agilent paid to come up with "Keysight":

http://catchwordbranding.com/catchthis/in-the-news/unlocking-technology-insights-with-keysight-agilents-new-baby/

In Agilent’s case, this meant developing over 5,000 names exploring different themes, constructions, and approaches. After many rounds of selection (and elimination), Keysight emerged the winner.

Out of 5,000 names, Keysight was the best one they could come up with?

well maybe the best one for which the domain was available...

[JoeyP]

In Agilent’s case, this meant developing over 5,000 names exploring different themes, constructions, and approaches. After many rounds of selection (and elimination), Keysight emerged the winner.

Out of 5,000 names, Keysight was the best one they could come up with?

It's probably the same 5000 names they put in front of every single one of their clients. Oops, make that 4999 names.

[xrunner]

well maybe the best one for which the domain was available...

LOL probably right. Hell I would have bought the domain "Keysight" if I'd known they would have used such a lame name.

[Pat Pending]

Reminds me of Mr. Jelly from a UK kids show called the Mr. Men.
I think there was also a Mr. Quibble with an animated mouth action just like the logo.

[Co6aka]

That logo is one HORROR-ble looking AM envelope… Anyone with a AWG wanna code it up and post the demodulated audio?

[EEVblog]

It's probably the same 5000 names they put in front of every single one of their clients. Oops, make that 4999 names.

Just like astrology. The meaning can be made to fit any individual in any circumstance.

[komet]

Keysight sounds exactly like an SEO or web metrics company, and the logo also looks like it might be one. Dreadful.

Still, it's a better name for a measurement company than "Fluke" and they did alright.

[N2IXK]

The "fuzzy red waveform" logo seemed vaguely familiar to me from "somewhere", and I just found it.

A software package sold by Measurement Computing, called "TracerDAQ".  While not identical, certainly looks close enough to be arguably "derivative", especially considering both are being used for test/measurement products.

I wonder if anyone from Measurement Computing legal dept. has seen the new Keysense logo yet?

[steves]

And didn't Life Sciences used to be called Pharmacology & Biology?

[vk6zgo]

In Dave's unusual text rant,he ends up saying:

"why not go Back to the Future and call it B&D Technologies. Here is your new logo:"
& ends up with a pix of the eponymous (I've been dying to use that word) H & P standing in front of a garage.

Problem is that there is already a "B&D" involved with making "Rolladoors" for garages,who have been around nearly as long,so they might get upset!

Funnily enough,they tried to call it just "BD" some years ago,due to the connotations of "B & D".
( I always imagine some one gaffering their partner to the door & rolling it up & down)
The customers would have none of it,& doggedly continued to refer to the firm  as "B & D",so they gave up trying.

The Keysight logo does look like an early HP DSO trying to resolve an AM signal.

[EEVblog]

Problem is that there is already a "B&D" involved with making "Rolladoors" for garages,who have been around nearly as long,so they might get upset!

Yes, and I have one of course.
I deliberately left out that little Australian-ism, that would get in the way of a good point.

[N2IXK]

Here in the states, we have a "BD" (Medical Supplies), AND a "B&D" (power tools and small appliances)...

http://www.bd.com/us/

http://www.blackanddecker.com/

[Dave]

well maybe the best one for which the domain was available...

LOL probably right. Hell I would have bought the domain "Keysight" if I'd known they would have used such a lame name.

Doubt it. A couple of grand for a domain means nothing to them. If they are happy to give away equipment worth thousands for review, they wouldn't have a problem spending that much for a good domain. I bet they just suck at picking names.

[Stonent]

It seems this wasn’t their only logo choice though, as someone on the EEVblog forum quickly found out when they googled imaged the new name.

 

Altogon Technologies
Altagon Technologies (because, you know, the “o” could suck)

Well Alto and Alta (depending on language) could have different meanings. It could mean high or tall or large. So High-Shape technologies (groovy man!) or Tall-Shape, or Large-Shape.

[BravoV]

Choosing a name for an international company does have to be done pretty carefully. You have to dodge all same or similar sounding names (and logos) or suffer the inevitable legal hassles.

Look who was Apple needed to deal with on the word "ipad".  Oouchh ? 

[KTP]

I am going to register HappyLuckyInstrument.com....that name is brilliant...should be able to sell it for big bucks. 

[drtaylor]

When Danaher bought Fluke it didn't rebrand every DMM with Danaher. Smart move. Fluke is still Fluke as far as anyone buying one is concerned. You'd think HP would have done the same thing. This is what happens when marketing types take over companies started by visionary engineers. I've seen it many times, and I fear for what remains of HP/Agilent. As soon as it goes public it is in danger.

[vk6zgo]

Problem is that there is already a "B&D" involved with making "Rolladoors" for garages,who have been around nearly as long,so they might get upset!

Yes, and I have one of course.
I deliberately left out that little Australian-ism, that would get in the way of a good point.

Choosing a name for an international company does have to be done pretty carefully. You have to dodge all same or similar sounding names (and logos) or suffer the inevitable legal hassles.
And you need to not pick something that has local cultural issues or sounds like a colloquialism.

Apple sued Woolworths (Aust) over this new logo.

If I were Apple,I would quietly walk away----Woolies  is not a soft target!

[peter.mitchell]

Choosing a name for an international company does have to be done pretty carefully. You have to dodge all same or similar sounding names (and logos) or suffer the inevitable legal hassles.

Look who was Apple needed to deal with on the word "ipad".  Oouchh ? 

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/agilent's-etm-business-has-new-name/?action=dlattach;attach=75544;image

Oh yeah?!

Ha!

[Nermash]

As always, beaty is in the eyes of beholders, and I can bet that if the new Keysmith 34461A sold for 50% less than Agilent 34461A, that beaty would be glowing hot:) I would be the first one aplauding that name change 

On the other hand, maybe the new name was choosen on purpose, to reflect the new company's aim at middle and lower segments of the market, and increased focus on other areas outside of USA.

And in the end, it does not really matter that much, people are still the most important factor in the company, without real people bringing new value even the fanciest of names will be just vaporware.

The good news is that Tektronix marketing guys now can have a field day: "Tektronix sight remained unchanged for 65+ years. That is our key" Tek people, just remember where you read it first!

[Dr. Frank]

Why didn't they chose 'dymec' or 'dynac' instead, as a logo 'dy', and printing that logo upside down on the new instruments? 

Frank

PS: http://www.hpmemory.org/news/dymec/dymec_page_00.htm

[vk6zgo]

Problem is that there is already a "B&D" involved with making "Rolladoors" for garages,who have been around nearly as long,so they might get upset!

Yes, and I have one of course.
I deliberately left out that little Australian-ism, that would get in the way of a good point.

I realise that,Dave,it was just the fact they were standing in front of a garage that tickled my sense of humour!

[jpb]

Not again! I've still not got over the change to Agilent.

I remember a colleague at the time saying that "Agilent" sounded like "Ailing Gent" and that picture has stuck in my head ever since.

"Keysight" is even worse - far too close to "Keystone" as in Keystone Cops!

A wikipedia link for those too young to have heard of them!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_Cops

[BobC]

I think they were going for a IBM/HAL thing

H+3=K
P+3=S

This was the first thing I noticed in the new name.

Shakespare had it right: "What's in a name?  That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Anyone for "Lucky Rose Instruments"?

[cidcorp]

After reading the eevBlog text entry on the name change, I'm not totally sure where Dave stands on the name change...   Come on Dave tell us how you really feel.

Maybe we should all post our own Logo and Name design to the forum, just for fun (not like we're not already busy enough).   I'd love to see what some engineers think the name and logo should look like - been a while since I fired up Adobe Illustrator.

 

[kfitch42]

Since there are going to be tons of people going "HP --- Agilent --- KeyStone ... whatever", we should just shorten it and start referring to the equipment as "H-PAKS"

[mikemcginn@mcginnweb.net]

I hate the new name.
I started my career as a technician fixing T & M equipment for Philips. We had a defined benefit pension, a medical plan, a dental plan and an eyeglass plan.

Those days are gone forever.

Bill and Dave, and Howard Vollum too - built great companies. These companies were built on technical excellence and treating their employees as valued assets.

Those days are gone forever.

Now it is about the quarterly numbers. The first summer I worked at Philips our repair business hit a serious lull. We went from dozens of instruments coming in a week to maybe a half dozen a week. There were five technicians and we would fight over the incoming repairs. Yet there was no talk of layoffs. This was in 1979.

Can you imagine that happening today?

The corporate splits and the name changes are reflective of the massive changes in the way companies look at the world and themselves since I started working. It has not been a change for the better.

[JoeyP]

It's probably the same 5000 names they put in front of every single one of their clients. Oops, make that 4999 names.

Just like astrology. The meaning can be made to fit any individual in any circumstance.

Exactly, given how poorly the new name fits. Something about it even sounds grammatically incorrect when placed in front of a model number. It would fit a chain of locksmith shops as well or better. Or optometrists, or, or, or. They probably have a batch of pseudo-randomly generated names they'll put in front of any doufus willing to pay for them.

[phamuc]

The new name reminds me of the Keystone Cops in sound and business practice.

[Bored@Work]

Why didn't they chose 'dymec' or 'dynac' instead, as a logo 'dy', and printing that logo upside down on the new instruments? 

Frank

PS: http://www.hpmemory.org/news/dymec/dymec_page_00.htm

The dymec trademarks in the US is currently owned by a company called Kyland-USA.

[JoeyP]

The new name reminds me of the Keystone Cops in sound and business practice.

Yes, or as someone else mentioned, Keystone beer. Would be funny if it became a trend to cover up the new logo with a Keystone beer logo in labs across the land.

[G7PSK]

The name Keysight makes me think of something to do with guns, perhaps a rifle sight mount.

[tszaboo]

The name Keysight makes me think of something to do with guns, perhaps a rifle sight mount.

Or gynecology.
It is really awful. I started using in our internal documentation, which are going to meetings. Constant entertainment.

[casper.bang]

What a lame name, sounds like a NSA spy program. At least we still have Rigol.

[G0HZU]

I prefer Agilent or HP. Hey, have you seen my new Keysight 6.5 digit DMM? God that sounds awful 

That pretty much sums it up I think.
I didn't much care for Agilent, but the name did kind of at least sound professional from the get-go as a word on it's own, without the "Technologies" part.

When HP changed its name to Agilent the consensus in our lab was that 'Agilent' sounded like the trade name for an industrial strength drain cleaning product

 

[Maxlor]

What a lame name, sounds like a NSA spy program. At least we still have Rigol.

Not that great a name once you consider that rigoler in french means laughing, making fun of something. Doesn't exactly imply serious measurement business either 

[casper.bang]

What a lame name, sounds like a NSA spy program. At least we still have Rigol.

Not that great a name once you consider that rigoler in french means laughing, making fun of something. Doesn't exactly imply serious measurement business either 

That's a game you can not win, there will always be languages where there are clashes. Worst example I know of nationally is my utility company DONG (Dansk Olie og NaturGas).

[Dave]

That's a game you can not win, there will always be languages where there are clashes. Worst example I know of nationally is my utility company DONG (Dansk Olie og NaturGas).

The worst one I have seen so far was this:


In Slovenian it literally translates to "shaved cunt".
They changed their name to just "Brita" before they started selling these filters in our country.

[vk6zgo]

Names are funny things-----

The two main 'phone companies in Oz sound like an old Ford car (Telstra),& a firm of Optometrists (Optus),respectively.

[Oracle]

Pretty horrible name isn't? Personally I found "agilent" a better brand name, at least more effective.... and also the logo it seems pretty bad. 

Anyway, I suspect that instrumentation prices branded as "keysight" will go up crazy because of this "name change".

[george graves]

So let me get this right..."Keysight" is a bad name.  As in... "I hope my measurement is in sight!!! - That would be KEY!"  Oh lololol.....

OK - I get it.  Funny name....make fun of it.  The name is totally silly.  I agree.

People laughed at Ipad as well.  Don't you wish you were part of that??

Oh, let us not forget - the worst name for a measurement device EVER!!!!...FLUKE.

(flu?k)
n
1. an accidental stroke of luck
2. any chance happening

[SeanB]

I hope they never make something with an acronym of COP ( Common Orientation Programming springs to mind) as then they will have a hard time not being known as Keystone.........

[AndersAnd]

Poor effort really, the best anagram of Keysight is Get Hi Sky.

Or "Shit G key", then they could base their new logo on this:




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G_major

G major (or the key of G) is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F?.

[amyk]

The funny thing is they are overlooking a better name every time they rename the ETM division.
Just call it ETM,for Pete's sake!
Modify the old HP logo,with etm instead of hp so people can recognise its origins.

Like this?

[echen1024]

The funny thing is they are overlooking a better name every time they rename the ETM division.
Just call it ETM,for Pete's sake!
Modify the old HP logo,with etm instead of hp so people can recognise its origins.

Like this?

Beautiful. 

[TRa757]

I think this is perfect fodder for a rant.  Dave???

[Stonent]

I think this is perfect fodder for a rant.  Dave???

Uhm, main page?

[N2IXK]

Really like the (etm) logo, but the lower stroke on the "t" makes it easy to read as "ecm"...

[c4757p]

I saw "esm"

[EEVblog]

The funny thing is they are overlooking a better name every time they rename the ETM division.
Just call it ETM,for Pete's sake!
Modify the old HP logo,with etm instead of hp so people can recognise its origins.

Like this?

Yep, that totally works.
I'm sure they can afford to buy the zombie game site etm.com

[EEVblog]

I think this is perfect fodder for a rant.  Dave???

You need to follow my blog page!

[free_electron]

The funny thing is they are overlooking a better name every time they rename the ETM division.
Just call it ETM,for Pete's sake!
Modify the old HP logo,with etm instead of hp so people can recognise its origins.

Like this?

Drop the letter e. Just TM. In the old school logo. Test and measurement.

[SeanB]

Would work just calling themselves "The Test and Measurement Company", shortened to TM in the logo in the HP colours and typeface. Just not make the M smaller as then it can cause confusion.

[george graves]

If you know anything about branding, you never do a 2-3 letter name.

IBM never called themselves "IBM".  They were "International Business Machines"  - it was only until they were a household name, and all of their customers started to call them IBM, that they had the nerve to call them selves IBM.

I see companies all the time, start up and call them selves "RMX" - and it's a bad move.  I'll never remember your name.  RMX?  Three random letters.  You would have been better off with a whimsical name.

[calexanian]

http://www.keysight.com/en/?cmpid=p4p_keysight&s_kwcid=TC|6885|keysight||S|p|32396473936

For those who have not seen it yet, have a look at the video..

Ok, so you cant use HP.. Lets call it B&D! I like the sound of that, and everybody will know what it means! Come check out this new B&D.. Sounds way better than Come look at this Keysight. Sounds like something you would use to target a gun or drop a bomb with.

[EEVblog]

Here is the story of how they came up with the new name:
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20140107/business/140109737

[vk6zgo]

If you know anything about branding, you never do a 2-3 letter name.

IBM never called themselves "IBM".  They were "International Business Machines"  - it was only until they were a household name, and all of their customers started to call them IBM, that they had the nerve to call them selves IBM.

I see companies all the time, start up and call them selves "RMX" - and it's a bad move.  I'll never remember your name.  RMX?  Three random letters.  You would have been better off with a whimsical name.

Back in the day,AWA & ERF sold a lot of Electronics & Trucks,respectively.
& who ever knew BP as British Petroleum?

[FrankBuss]

Here is the story of how they came up with the new name:
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20140107/business/140109737

Sounds like a big waste of money. This week I created a logo for my company, and 99designs was really easy and cheap (Dave, you should get a commission, I first heard about it because of your T-shirt campaign ). I got more than 100 logos, selected the 8 best and then used the (clear) winner of a survey. And I agree with one of the previous posters: If you are proud of what you do, you should just use your personal name. Hewlett-Packard was nice.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Looks like a domain reseller has now bought keyshite.com 

[AndersAnd]

This week I created a logo for my company, and 99designs was really easy and cheap (Dave, you should get a commission, I first heard about it because of your T-shirt campaign ). I got more than 100 logos, selected the 8 best and then used the (clear) winner of a survey.

How much did such a logo from 99designs cost if you don't mind answering?

[Dongulus]

Here is the story of how they came up with the new name:
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20140107/business/140109737

“There were a number of names we kicked around that would have been related to our early days, our history with Hewlett-Packard,” Gasparian said. “The older employees really thought that was cool. The younger people, they didn't know anything about it."

It's a shame that none of the names evoking their HP roots made it. I wonder if they actually considered Bill & Dave's  .

I'm confused that the younger people at the company didn't understand the names relating to their Hewlett-Packard history. The summer I worked for Agilent in Santa Rosa I remember loads of references to HP: There were a set of company culture policies affectionately referred to as the "HP way", there were posters up featuring quotes from Bill and Dave and pictures of the garage where HP started (the structure is still owned and kept up by the company). One day they took us interns to the Santa Clara headquarters where keep a museum detailing a history of HP complete with a collection of vintage test equipment.

The older engineers talked about the old days of HP all the time. The feeling I got (at least from a few years back that I worked for them) was a sense of pride that they still retained something of what once made HP great. Too bad none of that came through into their name selection.

[FrankBuss]

How much did such a logo from 99designs cost if you don't mind answering?

See the prices on the webpage. This one was the cheapest offer, EUR 229. I used the service before for another logo, with the second cheapest option, EUR 379, but I think there is not much difference. I got 147 logo ideas for it, and now 106, half of it good quality.

[Stonent]

I just can't get around the wave form looks like a mouth with bad teeth.

[EEVblog]

Sounds like a big waste of money. This week I created a logo for my company, and 99designs was really easy and cheap (Dave, you should get a commission, I first heard about it because of your T-shirt campaign ). I got more than 100 logos, selected the 8 best and then used the (clear) winner of a survey.

Nice. That works.

[fcb]

I just can't get around the wave form looks like a mouth with bad teeth.

Little Audrey Giant Clam Tickle (!)

[Bassman59]

The "fuzzy red waveform" logo seemed vaguely familiar to me from "somewhere", and I just found it.

A software package sold by Measurement Computing, called "TracerDAQ".  While not identical, certainly looks close enough to be arguably "derivative", especially considering both are being used for test/measurement products.

I wonder if anyone from Measurement Computing legal dept. has seen the new Keysense logo yet?

Measurement Computing was bought by National Instruments, so I wonder if NI feels like litigating?

[Bassman59]

Here is the story of how they came up with the new name:
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20140107/business/140109737

From near the end of the article: “Myself and all the employees are excited about taking Keysight to the next level.” I guess that's what passes for English these days.

[jancumps]

All of this adds complexity to my eBay stored search

[Dongulus]

Old news.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/agilent's-etm-business-has-new-name/

Basically, the consensus of the forum is that it sounds like a crappy "Won-Hung-Lo" brand name.

[jancumps]

We know it's old news. Covered here and @ TheAmpHour at full length and breadth. That has never stopped us to keep on waffling about it .

[miguelvp]

Should be Key Sigh

[saturation]

... or worse, keyster 

[XOIIO]

I agree, it sounds like crap, why bother changing the name again? 

[w2aew]

I agree, it sounds like crap, why bother changing the name again? 

The Life Sciences division and the Test & Measurement division are splitting up - Life Sciences is keeping the Agilent name, so the T&M division gets a new name.

[linux-works]

I always laugh at a company with a recognized name wanting to change it.

reminds me of sgi (silicon graphics).  a bit uproar from employees when the company wanted to shorten its name to just the 3 letters 'sgi'.  it also dropped its famous cube 3d logo design.  no one was happy about that.  and look what happened to THEM!  (lol)

I actually never saw what was wrong with keeping hewlett packard as a name and HP as the short form.  honor the founders and keep the old tradition alive.  of course, hp is nothing like it was when it was at its peak, but still, getting rid of time-tested names is pretty dumb.

some executives really don't have a lot to do, it seems, if they think that changing names is something worth doing and paying for.  not to mention all the cost in signage and redoing literature and documentation to reflect new names and logos.

if I was a stockholder, I'd be upset at the waste of money a stupid name-change would cost.  its not free, you know, it has real costs to it.

[Simon]

well im glad fluke didnt decide to become FLOKE 

it must be a fluke they didn't

[HighVoltage]

It is all about money on the big stock market.
These people do not care about a name and what is involved to do such thing.
All they care about is the big money at the end of a day, when they split the company.

Kind of ridicules.
But then, Agilent is big enough to withstand such a shakeup.
Many other companies did not survive a name change

14 Companies That Reversed Their Horrible Attempts At Rebranding:
http://www.businessinsider.com/14-brands-that-had-to-reverse-their-horrible-attempts-at-rebranding-2012-3?op=1#!JBxuF

[dc101]

Not sure how much truth there is to this, but the R&S reps at the EE Live show in San Jose earlier this year said that Agilent wasn't doing so well (financially) and that was part of the reason for the split.  That was his response when I mentioned it was odd that Agilent wasn't at EE Live even though they're reps could have practically walked to the convention center from the main Agilent building.

-Tim

[Richard Crowley]

I always laugh at a company with a recognized name wanting to change it.

"Wanting to"?  Sounds more like the Test & Measurement biz have been divorced by the Medical Equipment people.
So the T&M company were forced to find a new name. 

Maybe they should have spent a bit more time (and consulting fees?) They might have come up with a better name.

[ManateeMafia]

Kind of ridicules.
But then, Agilent is big enough to withstand such a shakeup.
Many other companies did not survive a name change

14 Companies That Reversed Their Horrible Attempts At Rebranding:
http://www.businessinsider.com/14-brands-that-had-to-reverse-their-horrible-attempts-at-rebranding-2012-3?op=1#!JBxuF

I worked for a company called Picker International several years ago. They wanted to "rebrand" themselves to Marconi. It lead to confusion, especially since the competition used it as a source of FUD. The customers dumped them and they were eventually bought by Philips.

I also worked for another company called Sports & Recreation Inc. They decided to rebrand their stores to Jumbo Sports. Their stores were originally named after the city in which they were located. Customers shopped there thinking they were inside a locally owned business. Once the name changed, everybody ran to Sports Authority.

I can imagine Agilent's competition will be using the name change to their advantage. I don't blame them. There is a sense of brand loyalty by many customers, can you imagine if Porsche or Ferrari changed names?

[Bored@Work]

Don't these mega companies have anything better to do than put an organization through a name change.

No, the Dilbert author once made a list of ten things managers like to do when they are bored. Renaming was very high on the list.

[miguelvp]

well im glad fluke didnt decide to become FLOKE 

Years ago, many of my friends who were at Tektronix when Danaher (who own Fluke) bought Tek, I heard references to Fluke with the letter P in the beginning.....Puke. I think that pretty much sums up the sentiment at the time. I kinda like that name more than I like Keysight Technologies. Don't these mega companies have anything better to do than put an organization through a name change. Imagine if Apple changed its name to Orange......then we would no longer be able to compare apples to oran......oh forget it!

Lamborghini was a tractor manufacturer that bought a Ferrari, he gave unsolicited advice to Enzo Ferrari about why he didn't like the car and what should be changed. Enzo told him to go and work on your tractors. So Ferruccio went in direct competition.

Don't put down others, they might put their horns on your horse. Or worse as some "fan" logos show the Lamborghini bull having its way with the Ferrari horse.

Although I rather have a Ferrari than a Lambo.

[brabus]

[OT]
miguelvp, it is so nice to see that someone on the other side of the world knows the correct story! You're great, man!

You cannot imagine how many people in Italy actually ignore it. 

[/OT]

Regarding HP/Agilent/Keysight, I guess they know their business... with the current strong competition, and a pretty niche top-level market, maybe this is just a strategy to "make Agilent instruments seem old". And therefore sell the new Keysight ones!
Unfortunately, psychology plays a big role when it comes to buy something valuable expensive; especially if money is not an issue, like in Research or Defense fields.

So, let's hope at least we can find tons of used Agilent gear in the next months!

[Rigby]

... or worse, keyster 

ROFL keister... Damn that is a brilliant name.

[XOIIO]

... or worse, keyster 

ROFL keister... Damn that is a brilliant name.

Keyster wireless multimeters, for when you don't want to get off your keister.

[ivan747]

 
So that's the new name for Agilent's electronic test and mesurement spin-off... Why!? It sounds a lot like Keithley, and I've already had a bit of trouble understanding that Agilent spun off form HP. Tracking used equipment is still a pain. Now it could get chaotic. Same goes with documentation. Well, I'm sure stockholders don't care about that.

But why Keysight? Well, they aparently have 75 years of "insight" on eletronic equipent, dating back to the HP days. I guess the "key" part is because they're the key to your measurements or whatever. 

They should've had a committee of HP engineers choosing the name. Well, that's what I'd do 

http://www.agilent.com/about/companyinfo/keysight-backgrounder.pdf

The name Keysight is derived from two English words: key, meaning indispensable or essential, a means of access; and insight, meaning the power of seeing, having vision and perception. The name connotes seeing what others cannot, having the critical or key insight to understand and unlock the changing technology landscape.

Someone's gonna buy a brand new Mercedes with the money that was paid to think of that naming explanation.   

At least the logo is great (in the sense that it actually means something):

That one guy does the money for his Porsche 911. 

It's a modulation waveform of some sort. It's either noise or modulation. I hope its not noise cause that would be retarded for a test and measurement company. 

The company is going to be red and gray, just like Danaher's Amprobe. They're gonna gave trouble in the handheld mutimeter with holster department...

http://www.keysight.com/en/
http://www.agilent.com/about/companyinfo/keysight-backgrounder.pdf

[c4757p]

You're late, dude!

[ivan747]

 
I must have been living under a rock

[Rory]

You know, looking at the homepage the impression I get is that the page is about selling the company to investors, i.e. the company itself is the product. The hardware and services are secondary.

[electronics man]

Best thing to do is just keep calling them Agilent and ignore the Keysight name completely.

Yeah, but eventualy they will brand there equipment keysight and we will be forced to call them that.

[Fsck]

Best thing to do is just keep calling them Agilent and ignore the Keysight name completely.

Yeah, but eventualy they will brand there equipment keysight and we will be forced to call them that.

no we don't, I usually use the company name at the time of release so until they release something new... but even then, horrible name and I'll probably avoid it

[AndersAnd]

Best thing to do is just keep calling them Agilent and ignore the Keysight name completely.

Why not just call them by their original name Hewlett Packard (or just HP) instead then?

[N2IXK]

Why not just call them by their original name Hewlett Packard (or just HP) instead then?

Because for some inexplicable reason they kept that name for the company selling commodity PCs, printers, and overpriced ink cartridges...

[miguelvp]

Better?

As far as scopes, they do make very good ones, let's hope they keep on being the opposite of that logo you just posted

But I give you props for creativity. 

[dannyf]

Keysight Technologies:

It always reads "Eye Sight" to me. Not sure why.

[Richard Crowley]

What is next to split off?  Perhaps they will jettison their low-price products (<$1000?)
They can call the new company "Disposable Electronics" and have a logo with a trash can or something.
"Just buy a new one."

[Rigby]

Why the animosity?  We all know their products are very good.  Why are we namecalling?  Aren't we better than this?

We can disagree with the split all we want, but there are people in that organization who've just had their loyalty split off from the rest of Agilent, and I don't think calling them Keyshite will do them any good.

What are we trying to accomplish, honestly, with the Keyshite stuff?  Seriously, I want to know.

[AndersAnd]

What is next to split off?  Perhaps they will jettison their low-price products (<$1000?)

Agilent's entry level scopes are already made by Rigol.

[TerraHertz]

More recently:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-22/why-hewlett-packard-just-announced-another-16000-job-cuts
This Is Why Hewlett Packard Just Announced Another 16,000 Job Cuts

As usual the reader comments on ZH are priceless.

[linux-works]

corp doublespeak quote:

"As HP continues to reengineer the workforce to be more competitive and meet its objectives..."

ah, I get it.  're-engineer' means, in corp doubletalk, to REMOVE things.

and so, I should start using this verb.  if I have to remove code, I'll 're-engineer' it.  if there are some parts that blew on a board, I'll remove them by 're-engineering' the board.   and that thing that I threw out that I no longer need: yeah, I 're-engineered' that all the way to the trashcan.

[fcb]

Ready for the 1st August? Excited?

(Actually the bigger date is November 1st when Keysight will cast off a proper from Agilent).

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/business/2425955-181/agilent-in-santa-rosa-poised#page=1

And check out the last two paragraphs on page 3....

[Bored@Work]

And check out the last two paragraphs on page 3....

Sounds like Apple tried to have Agilent over a barrel, but Agilent refused to bend over.

[Rigby]

Sounds like Apple tried to have Agilent over a barrel, but Agilent refused to bend over.

Yup.  Good for them.  Standing up for Apple and avoiding them is a +1 in my book.

[kfitch42]

Ready for the 1st August? Excited?

(Actually the bigger date is November 1st when Keysight will cast off a proper from Agilent).

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/business/2425955-181/agilent-in-santa-rosa-poised#page=1

And check out the last two paragraphs on page 3....

From the article:

With 1,200 new employee badges ... 9,500 employees ...  a core team of roughly 1,000 Agilent employees ... creating 15,000 new email addresses

That seems like a big spread for a bunch of numbers that mean very roughly the same thing.

[AndersAnd]

The countdown on their website is now over and they have just launched their new website: http://www.keysight.com

Even with the new Keysight logo photoshopped onto some of their product pictures, although not all of them. Their multimeters still says Agilent on the product pictures.

[jolshefsky]

So I was looking again at the Agilent scopes on Transcat's site but they were all coming up "Keysight Technologies, Inc." My first thought was here, but "Keysight" returned no search results. A quick Google and I find Agilent's press release of January 7, 2014 titled "Agilent Technologies Reveals Name of Electronic Measurement Spin-Off Company". As far as I can tell, it appears they are moving their electronic test equipment to Keysight of Hewlett-Packard lineage (a name that stopped inspiring confidence with the inkjet sitting on my desk.) It's unclear who bought whom.

My first thought was, "buy quick." Any time there's a shift in a company, I figure quality will drop over time, so if I want the quality I hear about now, I should buy now. But it's usually when a company is bought by another that everything gets cheapened and quality falls through the floor (*cough* Cooper Tools *cough*). What happens when a company is spun off?

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt aside, does anyone have more solid information about this transition? I'm hoping against odds that this thread will be filled with insider information that will aid my buying decision, but if my 30 years online has anything to say, it's going to be a lot of ...

[AndersAnd]

My first thought was here, but "Keysight" returned no search results.

Unfortunately a lot of members [including you I can see] doesn't know how to use the search box at the upper right corner of this forum properly. Understandable so as it's not very intuitive with no explanation of whats going on and the search function works differently to many other forums.

There's plenty of hits for Keysight in this forum if you search the right way.

Go to the forum front page https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php before searching, only then will you search in all the sub-forums.
Easiest way is to just click at EEVblog Electronics Community Forum at the top of this forum before searching.

If you are already in a sub-forum before searching, it will only search that sub-forum.
And if you are already in a topic before searching it will only search that specific topic.

The other search button in the menu at the upper left between 'Help' and 'Profile' works differently and searches the whole forum regardless of where you are. So it's probably best to make it a habit to use this as opposed to the location based search box at the upper right, unless you only what to search a specific sub-forum or topic. But most of the time you just want to search the whole forum, so the search ox is very confusing and you often forget how it works as in most other forums it always searches the whole forum unless otherwise specified under advanced search.



I can see your topic has already been merged with an existing topic about the same started back in January. So this is old news and has already been discussed to death.

[Lawsen]

Agilent is now Keysight.  The company was originally the foundation of the famous Hewlett-Packard Company founded in the great depression era.  HP originally made frequency generator oscillator as their first product in a garage in Palo Alto, California U.S.A. HP is the only surviving brand name that seems to make a varied products, some great and some not too good.  Their calculator line is not so popular compared with TI CX CAS.  HP has a color version, too; the HP Prime.  Their all in one computer is best with the HP Z-1 G2.  Agilent name went into history as the Keysight. 

[Wuerstchenhund]

Their all in one computer is best with the HP Z-1 G2. 

Yes, the z1 G2 (no dash between 'z' and '1') is a great AIO computer, and a class of its own in the workstation market (the z-Series are not regular PCs). HP does really make the best workstations, not just the z1 but the other ones as well (I'm writing this on a 12-core z820).

Their servers used to be great, but unfortunately the last ones that were really good and reliable were the G7 servers. The Gen8 servers however aren't that great, predictive diagnostics often orders the wrong part, and HP made changes to simple things like hard drive trays to create artificial incompatibility and squeeze more money out of their customers. Their latest bright idea was that BIOS updates are no longer free but now require a valid warranty or a support contract. This has really pissed of lots of traditional customers.

Unfortunately most of the more recent attention HP got was because their imbecile board made some truly moronic decisions and not because of great products.

I'm not holding my breath that they won't do this to their workstation line, and I guess it won't be very long before I have to order more Dell workstations instead of buying HP.

[TimNJ]

Woohoo! Since the Agilent name held a whole slew of products under its name, including bio, chem, physics, and medical equipment, I guess it makes sense to have a separate brand just for electronics test equipment. Fluke, Tek, and Rigol are exclusively electrical/electronics test equipment so I suppose the Keysight split will achieve this type of status. However, I'm still not entirely convinced it was necessary.

On another note, if you asked me a couple of years ago I would have told you I hated the HP brand. I had a Pavilion laptop that failed catastrophically and from thence on I was negatively biased against HP. Ironically however, my current computer is a HP ProBook and I could not be happier. I think that HP's consumer offerings are quite shit, in terms of build quality and long term reliability, but their pro-sumer, business/professional oriented stuff is really top notch.

[VK5RC]

I would generally agree with the comment that HP has not been a consistent name for quality like it was some decades ago,  I have had a good run with their small business  laser printers though.  I wonder where Keysight's major business is,  and suspect Military and University / Big private companies research departments are their markets.  The costs of repair at component level,  ie unrealistic,  will move the type of construction of instruments that may be less than desirable for the small enthusiasts.

[GeoffS]

http://www.eevblog.com/2014/01/09/hp-err-agilent-has-a-new-name/

[miguelvp]

Bumping this since the new thread got locked and redirects to the blog instead of the forum

Blog:
http://www.eevblog.com/2014/01/09/hp-err-agilent-has-a-new-name/

Forum new thread that should be merged with this one.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/agilent-is-now-keysight-the-company-changed-its-name/

Edit: unless we have to use Disqus to talk about this
Hmm I guess I had the wrong link on the forum thread, updated it

[AndersAnd]

Now, what's left in the company who kept the HP name seems to be splitting up too:

Hewlett-Packard Announces Plans to Break Up Company
H-P Would Separate PC, Printer Business from Corporate Hardware, Services; Expects More Layoffs

http://online.wsj.com/articles/hewlett-packard-to-split-into-two-companies-1412592132

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/10/05/report-hewlett-packard-plans-to-break-into-two/16768635/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/07/business/hewlett-packard-announces-breakup-plan.html

[HighVoltage]

All in the name of Shareholder-Value ....
- Bad for the customer
- Bad for the employees

[N2IXK]

So here's my suggestion for what the company should do from here:

Rename the corporate/enterprise computing division to "Digital Equipment Corporation".

Rename the consumer computer/printer division to "Compaq".

Sell the "Hewlett Packard" name to the company currently known as "Keysight Technologies".

 

[German_EE]

As somebody who worked on both DEC and Compaq equipment in the past, I approve 

[Richard Crowley]

That seems imminently sensible and since they previously subsumed both companies, they probably still own the names.
But, like most common-sense moves, it is probably the least likely to appear logical to the board and management.   

[miguelvp]

As someone that has worked with both DEC and HP workstations I will think nothing of the DEC mentality and vision remains. I'm not saying that HP workstations were bad. But not as innovating as DEC. I'm not sure what they've done after getting the Alpha workstations but Intel owns the chip architecture.

Did HP business department ever do their own processors for their systems?  Did they keep any of DEC's facilities?

[Richard Crowley]

Intel acquired the DEC wafer plant in Hudson.  We call it "Fab 17"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_manufacturing_sites

[ElektroQuark]

Consumer computer/printer division: "Keypress".

[miguelvp]

Consumer computer/printer division: "Keypress".

Good one!

[SeanB]

Consumer printer division can be renamed "Canon", as they make the same machines and consumables, just with slightly different case parts and one has crappier firmware.

Computer division would be best branded "Acer".

[benst]

They should have named the consumer division HP Ink, not HP Inc.

Ben

[ElektroQuark]

Quote from: SeanB on Today at 07:55:07 AM

Consumer printer division can be renamed "Canon", as they make the same machines and consumables, just with slightly different case parts and one has crappier firmware.

Is this true?

[tszaboo]

Quote from: SeanB on Today at 07:55:07 AM

Consumer printer division can be renamed "Canon", as they make the same machines and consumables, just with slightly different case parts and one has crappier firmware.

Is this true?

I can only confirm that some HP printers, you can print with a PIC32 category microcontroller through USB, while if you download the HP bloatware from the web it is 150MB.

[ElektroQuark]

HP and its gigantic software installations for... nothing.
Selecting the drivers only installation bundles from their downloads pages always helps maintaining computers more clean.

[SeanB]

HP cartridge CF505 is the same as a Canon 719, they are interchangeable, and put the Canon in a HP printer and it says "Genuine HP supplies installed" on the display. EP22 is a C4092A and so on. Buying them new you find a difference of about $5 between them, just because of the box.

Canon firmware on the other hand is definitely poorer, you get a lot of "undocumented features" and "not fully implemented" things. On the other hand the driver download is a lot smaller, and you do not get all the crapware that comes bundled with the 600Mb HP installer, that requires you to really read each and every screen carefully, including the EULA.

[Bored@Work]

Quote from: SeanB on Today at 07:55:07 AM

Consumer printer division can be renamed "Canon", as they make the same machines and consumables, just with slightly different case parts and one has crappier firmware.

Is this true?

Yep. If one of those monster HP MFPs doesn't do what it is supposed to do, obtaining service goes roughly like it follows:

Calling HP help line.

Getting dispatched to a call center in Romania, Bulgaria or a similar country in eastern Europe, where some former farm worker (no joke) which had been turned into an HP call center help staffer for minimal wage picks up the phone.

Farm worker doesn't really understand what you want, problems are the language as well as the technical knowledge.

Farm worker picks random service script out of his PC and starts reading the script. Script might even have to do something with printing. But that is more by accident.

Caller just repeats "printer broke down", and responds to every question of the kind "did you try to turn it off and on?" with "Yes, didn't help."

At the end of the script farm worker agrees to forward the call to some "printer specialist".

The "printer specialist" is located somewhere at the other end of the world, in Singapore or Malaysia, where it is night.

At that time the help line there is manned by the most junior staffer.

Junior is barely capable of finding his own ass with both hands, even if a flashlight would stick out of it. Junior doesn't find the printer service contract in the system. Farm worker previously didn't have that problem and even added all the data to the ticket. But junior doesn't even manage to read all parts of the ticket.

Junior "printer specialist" also does know shit about MFPs.

Back to the farm worker. The magic word is escalation.

Escalation means an "escalation manager" is put on the task. Probably the most wank title they have. Escalation poser sends you an escalation plan and promises regular follow-ups.  Escalation poser actually gives a fucking fart if the issue is fixed or not.

After three follow-ups ticket is closed, printer is still broken, but SLA was about to be violated.

ESCALATION of the escalation ...

Ups, maybe we should send a service technician?

YES.

So, ticket gets forwarded to, you guessed it, local Canon office to dispatch a service technician with a clue.

[SeanB]

I see you have met Telkom call centre then. Still waiting for them to come collect the old PBX parts, but the plus sign is that they signed they took it already. wonder if I should do an impromptu teardown of the 250 LED display board.

[Rigby]

I can only confirm that some HP printers, you can print with a PIC32 category microcontroller through USB, while if you download the HP bloatware from the web it is 150MB.

You need the unified HP driver.  Like 20MB and effectively no bloat.  Prints and gets the F out of the way.

[Rigby]

I see you have met Telkom call centre then. Still waiting for them to come collect the old PBX parts, but the plus sign is that they signed they took it already. wonder if I should do an impromptu teardown of the 250 LED display board.

The answer is yes.

[SeanB]

Ok, will see how going like a duck is tomorrow then.

[edavid]

Consumer printer division can be renamed "Canon", as they make the same machines and consumables, just with slightly different case parts and one has crappier firmware.

Weird, that is definitely not true in the US.  Don't most HP printers still have the printhead in the cartridge?  All Canon printers have the printhead in the printer.

[SeanB]

Not talking about the horrid low cost inkjet units, where you can have either in the 2 types, but the laser and higher end printers. the preference for that is mostly a choice that each division made years ago.

Have a look for the development of the HP laser printer division, it used Canon engines always until HP got to the point where they made their own engines, then sold them back to Canon.

[edavid]

Not talking about the horrid low cost inkjet units, where you can have either in the 2 types, but the laser and higher end printers. the preference for that is mostly a choice that each division made years ago.

Have a look for the development of the HP laser printer division, it used Canon engines always until HP got to the point where they made their own engines, then sold them back to Canon.

Hmm, when you talk about consumer printers, I do think of inkjets first.  Anyway, even when HP uses a Canon engine, they use their own formatter board, so it's not at all the same as a Canon printer.

[AndersAnd]

Consumer printer division can be renamed "Canon", as they make the same machines and consumables, just with slightly different case parts and one has crappier firmware.

Weird, that is definitely not true in the US.  Don't most HP printers still have the printhead in the cartridge?  All Canon printers have the printhead in the printer.

For laser printers HP and Canon share the same Canon print engine internally. The identical cartridges mentioned by SeanB are all toner cartridges for laser printers, not ink cartridges:

HP cartridge CF505 is the same as a Canon 719, they are interchangeable, and put the Canon in a HP printer and it says "Genuine HP supplies installed" on the display. EP22 is a C4092A and so on.

HP and Canon laser printers have been identical internally forever, sharing the same Canon printer engine and often the same enclosure too. I remember having a very old HP IIIP LaserJet and Canon sold an mechanically identical printer under their own name, but with different firmware.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_LaserJet#Technology

Technology

HP LaserJet printers employ xerox electro-photographic laser-marking engines sourced from the Japanese company Canon. Due to a very tight turnaround schedule on the first HP LaserJet, HP elected to use the controller already developed by Canon for the CX engine in the first HP LaserJet.[2]

The first HP LaserJet and the first Apple LaserWriter used the same print engine, the Canon CX engine.[3] HP chose to use their in-house developed Printer Command Language (PCL) as opposed to Apple, which adopted the PostScript language, as developed by Adobe Systems. The use of a less-ambitious and simpler Page Description Language allowed HP to deliver its LaserJet to the market about a year before Apple's CX based product, and for $1000 less.[2] The sharing of an identical Canon engine in two competing products continued with the HP LaserJet II/III and the Apple LaserWriter II, which both used the Canon LBP-SX print engine.

Canon LBP-SX VDO


HP LaserJet II


Apple LaserWriter II



Canon LBP-800


Canon LBP 1120


HP LaserJet 1100


Canon i-SENSYS LBP6020B


HP LaserJet Pro P1102W


For ink printers on the other hand they are not identical.

However the printheads are not always integrated in HP ink cartrigdes. The OfficeJet inkjets have separate print heads. For example OfficeJet 8610 all-in-one is much much cheaper in ink than their cheapest all-in-ones targeted at private consumers.

[BlueCoder]

I can only hope they either get acquired by Rigol or Elon Musk.

[VK5RC]

I must admit to hoping Rigol doesn't take over; my HP-Ag-KS gear has worked better than my Rigol gear - admittedly at a significantly higher price, but I think it is good we have a choice of a modest price reasonable quality value brand e.g. Rigol,  high quality brand e.g. KS R&S Fluke and 'value brands Siglent etc.

[Simon]

so long as value does not drop as low as OWON who can't even get a fucking power supply board in a £500 scope last more than a few dozen hours.

[VK5RC]

Simon Ouch, a long (or very short) story behind that I suspect! 

[Simon]

Simon Ouch, a long (or very short) story behind that I suspect! 

luckily it has a battery input

[SouthPark]

Recently ordered some HP.... oops.... I mean Agilent..... oops..... I mean Keysight .... items. Then ordered some Siglent and Applent items. Then wondered.... appLENT and sigLENT are ripping off the AgiLENT suffix?

HP should go back to the Agilent name.... as keysight sounds corny.... reminds me of keyhole surgery. But they probably changed since other companies are ripping off their LENT suffix. But shouldn't have chosen 'keysight'.