Agilent Technologies Announces Formation of New Life Sciences Business Unit.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 28, 2000

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) today announced that it has formed a new Life Sciences Business Unit (LSBU) within its Chemical Analysis Group (CAG) to better address the growing demand for its life sciences products. The new LSBU will provide more rapid and comprehensive solutions in genomics, chemical and biochemical measurements, microfluidics, informatics, and other analytical areas to its growing customer base in the pharmaceutical, agricultural, genomics and academic markets. Agilent's CAG will now comprise two business units: life sciences and chemical solutions.

The new unit will be headed by Bill Buffington, who will be vice president and general manager for Agilent's LSBU. He will report directly to Rick Kniss, senior vice president and general manager of Agilent's CAG.

"Pharmaceutical, agricultural and academic research endeavors in this `Age of the Genome' has created unprecedented customer demand for practical, cost-effective, integrated products that accelerate research of the disease and drug discovery process -- presenting a unique opportunity for Agilent. We see this change as fundamental to Agilent's plans to be a leader in the life sciences markets," said Rick Kniss, senior vice president and general manager of Agilent's Chemical Analysis Group. "By organizing our R&D, marketing and sales organizations into a focused Life Sciences Business Unit, we can capitalize on opportunities in the bioscience and pharmaceutical markets with greater speed and agility.

"We also have an excellent position in our traditional chemical, hydrocarbon processing and environmental markets where we are a leader in analytical systems like LC, LC-MS, GC, GC-MS and ICP-MS," said Kniss. "Our customers in these markets are extremely important to us, and formation of our new Life Sciences Business Unit will also allow us to bring new tools to chemical and environmental analysis. Overall we believe that these changes will position us to improve CAG's operational excellence and, in doing so, accelerate our growth and profitability."

CAG's new Life Sciences Business Unit will provide integrated solutions to markets from an existing portfolio of products that include DNA microarrays, informatics and lab-on-a-chip microfluidics solutions, as well as HPLC, LC-MS, and CE instruments and data systems.

About Agilent Technologies in the Pharmaceutical Value Chain

Agilent Technologies is a recognized leading supplier of high-quality instrument and software solutions, such as liquid chromatographs and mass spectrometers, to the pharmaceutical industry's drug development and quality control value chain. Today Agilent is furthering its reach along the entire pharmaceutical value chain by providing tools to scientists working in the fields of disease and drug discovery. Within these fields, Agilent is specifically targeting gene expression, genotyping, screening and proteomics research with nanoscale technologies, such as microarrays and microfluidic lab-on-a-chip tools, coupled with sophisticated informatics software. Pharmaceutical scientists can now use solutions that are faster, more flexible, less expensive, give higher throughput and promote industry standards.

Information about Agilent Technologies life sciences can be found on the Web at www.chem.agilent.com/scripts/phome.asp.

About Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) is a diversified technology company, resulting from Hewlett-Packard Company's plan to strategically realign itself into two fully independent companies. With approximately 46,000 employees serving customers in more than 120 countries, Agilent Technologies is a global leader in designing and manufacturing test, measurement and monitoring instruments, systems and solutions, and semiconductor and optical components. The company serves markets that include communications, electronics, life sciences and healthcare. In fiscal year 1999, the businesses comprising Agilent, then a subsidiary of HP, had net revenue of more than $8.3 billion.

Information about Agilent Technologies can be found on the Web at www.agilent.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements (including without limitation, information regarding the success of the new LSBU and its impact on CAG's operations, growth and profitability and on Agilent Technologies overall) that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause the results of the CAG group and of Agilent Technologies to differ materially from management's current expectations.

In addition, other risks that Agilent faces in running its operations include: parts shortages, the timely ability to ramp manufacturing capacity to meet order demand; the timely innovation, production, commercialization and acceptance of new products and services; the economic, political and other risks associated with international sales and operations; the cyclical nature or unpredictable weaknesses in some of the industries and markets into which Agilent sells its products; the potential for experiencing increased costs resulting from decreased purchasing power as a separate company from HP; the current use of information systems and transitional services provided to Agilent by HP, which Agilent must develop and procure on its own in the near term, potentially at increased costs; and other risks detailed in Agilent's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended October 31, 1999, and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended April 30, 2000, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.