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Waters Corporation

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Waters Corporation is an American company headquartered in Milford, Massachusetts that provides analytical instruments and software used for chromatography, mass spectrometry, laboratory informatics, and rheometry by the life sciences, materials, and food industries.[1]

The company has primary manufacturing facilities in 9 U.S. locations as well as 11 international locations including Wexford, Wilmslow, Birmingham, Hüllhorst, Singapore, Bangalore, Beijing, and Shanghai.[1]

Major brands include ACQUITY UPC2 / UPLC Systems and columns, Xevo mass spectrometry systems, Synapt MS / HDMS systems, Zodiac HPLC columns, XTerra HPLC columns, XBridge columns, Alliance HPLC systems, Empower chromatography software, MassLynxmass spectrometry software, Oasis sample preparation products, and NuGenesis lab management system (LMS).[1]

Its primary competitors are Agilent Technologies, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Revvity, and Danaher.[1]

History

In 1958, James (Jim) Logan Waters founded Waters Associates in an office in the basement of a police station in Framingham, Massachusetts.[2][3] Early products included a boiler feedwater flame photometer, a balloon hydrometer, a nerve gas detector, a lab refractometer and process control refractometers.[3]

Having asked Waters to design a refractometer in 1961, Dow Chemical had designed a method of analyzing polymers using gel columns. Waters negotiated an exclusive license to the patent, paying $10,000 plus a 10% royalty.[3]

In 1962, Hardie Sheppard provided the company with $150,000, its first external financing raise.[3]

In 1963, Waters’ produced its first five gel permeation chromatography instruments, selling three to Dow Chemical, one to BFGoodrich, and one to Esso.[3][4] Dow Chemical then invested $400,000 in Waters.[3]

In 1965, interest surged after Waters sponsored a symposium where scientists presented the results of using Waters equipment.[3] In 1966, Dow converted its royalty receivable into equity in Waters.[3]

In 1967, the company introduced the ALC 100, the first Waters LC system. It was a benchtop system equipped with a Milton Roy pump, syringe injection, and two detectors: a Waters differential refractometer and a UV detector from Laboratory Data Control.[3]

In 1969, Dimitri D’Arbeloff, then president of Millipore Corporation, joined the board of directors; Millipore's venture capital subsidiary made a $600,000 equity investment in Waters and provided the company with marketing expertise.[3] By 1972, Dow Chemical had invested $700,000 in the company and owned a 20% stake.[5]

In 1972, Helmut Hamberger, chief post-doc for Nobel laureate Robert Burns Woodward of Harvard University, sought Jim Waters’ help to the first synthesis of vitamin B12. Dr. Hamberger wanted to purify the positional isomers, which were needed to give him the right compound for the final stages of the synthesis. Working with Dr. Hamberger, the pair took two days to develop a separation, five more days to obtain larger columns to scale up the separation, and three more days to prep his material, successfully isolating and purifying 200 mg of the precursor compound.[2][3]

In 1973, a year after appointing Frank Zenie as its president,[3] Waters Associates moved its headquarters from Framingham to a semi-rural 26-acre (110,000 m2) site in Milford, Massachusetts;[3] Waters became chairman.[3]

From 1972 to 1977, sales grew at a 40% compound annual growth rate.[3] The company introduced its M6000 pump, the first high-pressure, high-accuracy pumping system, which won an award from Industrial Research Magazine.[3] In 1973, the company became a public company via an initial public offering on the predecessor to the Nasdaq.[3]

By 1978, Waters had a 40% market share in liquid chromatography and was five times bigger than any competitor.[3]

By 1979, Dow owned almost 25% of the company.[3] At that time, the company had 1,100 employees and over 10,000 customers.[3]

In May 1980, Millipore acquired the company for $167 million and the company was referred to as the Waters Chromatography Division of Millipore.[3] Due to competition, the early 1980s recession, the early 1990s recession, and lost focus, the company's growth stalled in the 1980s and early 1990s.[3] D’Arbeloff, the chairman of the company, died of cancer and the COO and CTO died in a helicopter crash while commuting between facilities.[3] The anticipated synergies never materialized.[3]

In 1994, an investor group led by management purchased the company for $360 million.[3] That year, the company introduced Symmetry HPLC columns.[3] It had a renewed focus for growth under CEO Douglas A. Berthiaume.[3] Pharmaceutical spending also increased after the failure of the Clinton health care plan of 1993.[3]

In November 1995, the company once again became a public company via an initial public offering.[3][6]

In 1996, in addition to acquiring TA Instruments,[3] it introduced the Alliance HPLC system.[3] The following year, Waters acquired Micromass for $176 million, entering the mass spectrometry market.[3]

En 2004, la empresa presentó el sistema Acquity UPLC, que aportó mayor velocidad, resolución y sensibilidad a las separaciones cromatográficas y fue considerado una tecnología revolucionaria. [ 3 ] En 2006, Waters adquirió Vicam, proveedor de productos de bioseparación y detección rápida para mejorar la seguridad y la calidad de los alimentos. [ 7 ]

En enero de 2020, adquirió Andrew Alliance, un productor de software y robótica para la automatización de laboratorios, por 77,4 millones de dólares. [ 8 ] En septiembre, Udit Batra fue nombrado presidente y director ejecutivo de la empresa. [ 9 ]

En mayo de 2023, Waters adquirió Wyatt Technology por 1.360 millones de dólares en efectivo. [ 10 ]

En julio de 2025, Waters acordó fusionarse con la unidad de biociencias y diagnóstico de Becton Dickinson , sujeta a la aprobación de los accionistas. [ 11 ] A medida que la fusión se acercaba a su finalización, Waters enfrentó demandas de accionistas por 17.500 millones de dólares que la acusaban de omitir detalles clave en la declaración de representación sobre el acuerdo. [ 12 ]

El 9 de febrero de 2026, Waters Corporation anunció que había completado la fusión con la antigua división de Becton Dickinson. [ 13 ] [ 14 ]

espectrómetros de masas

Véase también

Referencias

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Informe anual de Waters Corporation 2024 (Formulario 10-K)" . Comisión de Bolsa y Valores de EE. UU . 25 de febrero de 2025.
  2. 1 2 McDonald, Patrick D. (2008). "Waters Corporation: Cincuenta años de innovación en análisis y purificación" (PDF) . Chemical Heritage Magazine . 26 (2): 32– 37. Archivado del original el 4 de marzo de 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 "La historia de Jim Waters y Waters Corporation" (PDF) . Waters Corporation . 2015.
  4. ↑ Ettre, Leslie S. (1 de agosto de 2005). "Jim Waters: El desarrollo de GPC y los primeros instrumentos HPLC" . LCGC .
  5. ↑ Wilcke, Gerd (23 de marzo de 1972). "La ayuda de capital de riesgo de Dow" . The New York Times .
  6. ↑ "El nuevo director ejecutivo de Waters crea un banco más grande que su predecesor" . Telegram & Gazette . 8 de mayo de 2016.
  7. ↑ "Waters adquiere Vicam" . American City Business Journals . 27 de febrero de 2006.
  8. ↑ "Waters comprará Andrew Alliance y ampliará su cartera tecnológica" . Nasdaq . 16 de enero de 2020.
  9. ↑ "Waters Corporation nombra a Udit Batra presidente y director ejecutivo" (Comunicado de prensa). Business Wire . 15 de julio de 2020.
  10. ↑ "Waters Corporation completa la adquisición de Wyatt Technology, líder en dispersión de luz" (Comunicado de prensa). PR Newswire . 16 de mayo de 2023.
  11. ↑ Jacob, Denny (14 de julio de 2025). "La unidad de biociencias y diagnóstico de Becton Dickinson se fusionará con Waters Corp. en un acuerdo de 17.500 millones de dólares" . The Wall Street Journal .
  12. ↑ "Waters enfrenta demandas de accionistas mientras la fusión con BD por 17.500 millones de dólares se acerca a su finalización" . Boston Business Journal . 2026-01-20 . Consultado el 22 de enero de 2026 .
  13. ↑ "Waters completa la fusión con los negocios de biociencias y soluciones de diagnóstico de BD" . Waters Corporation . Consultado el 10 de febrero de 2026 .
  14. ↑ "BD completa la fusión de su negocio de biociencias y soluciones de diagnóstico con Waters Corporation" . Becton, Dickinson and Company . Consultado el 10 de febrero de 2026 .
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