Perkinelmer

Market position

PerkinElmer describes itself as a leading provider of end-to-end discovery, measurement and testing solutions and specialized pharma services, citing nearly 90 years of operating history, roughly 100,000 active instruments in the field and about 90,000 customers. Before the 2023 separation, the predecessor company was a component of the S&P 500 and operated in 190 countries; the divested applied, food and enterprise services businesses generated just under $1.3 billion of revenue in 2022, about a third of the former group's workforce.

The company positions itself on a combination of analytical instrumentation and specialized pharma services delivered end-to-end, an installed base of roughly 100,000 instruments, near-90-year operating history, and brand-specific depth in food and agriculture testing (Perten, Meizheng, Solus) and sample preparation (Covaris).

Technology

Core technologies include spectrometry and chromatography instrumentation for environmental and industrial analysis, real-time process measurement systems, food and agriculture quality testing instruments (moisture, protein, fat), rapid pathogen and contaminant detection assays, and sample-preparation systems for genomic and proteomic workflows (Covaris). Through Project Farma and SimoTech the company also provides GMP automation and digital manufacturing technologies such as DCS, MES and SCADA systems.

Go-to-market

Sales occur through direct operations in 35 countries and through authorized distributors reaching customers in 168 countries, supported by an online parts and instrument store, service contracts, and partnerships and collaborations such as the arrangement with Covalent for failure analysis and materials characterization services.

Pharmaceutical and biopharma manufacturers and laboratories, academic and government research organizations, industrial and semiconductor manufacturers, environmental testing labs, clinical testing labs, and food and agriculture producers and testing bodies.

Geography

The company reports offices in 35 countries and customers served in 168 countries through direct operations and distributors, with manufacturing in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific including China. Wikipedia lists its 2023 headquarters as Shelton, Connecticut; internal records place headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts. In September 2025 the company announced the phased permanent closure of its Shelton manufacturing facility.

History

Richard Perkin, who had studied chemical engineering at Pratt Institute, and Charles Elmer, who ran a court-reporting supply firm, met through a shared interest in astronomy and formed a partnership on 19 April 1937 to make precision optics, incorporating on 13 December 1939. The firm moved from Manhattan to Jersey City, then to Glenbrook and Norwalk, Connecticut, where it remained until 2000. World War II brought expansion into range finder, bombsight and reconnaissance optics, and the company later supplied optics for reconnaissance aircraft, balloons and satellites, the OAO-3 ultraviolet space telescope, Skylab and Apollo-era hardware including lunar laser retroreflectors. Shares traded over the counter after Elmer's death in 1954 and listed on the NYSE on 13 December 1960. From 1967 the company developed semiconductor photolithography systems, including the Microprojector and the Micralign projection scanning aligner. The company was split twice: in 1999 it merged with EG&G, with the analytical instruments division keeping the Perkin-Elmer name and the life sciences division becoming PE Corporation; and in 2022–2023 the applied, food and enterprise services businesses were sold to New Mountain Capital while the life sciences and diagnostics businesses became Revvity, Inc.

Risks & controversies

The company announced the permanent, phased shutdown of its Shelton, Connecticut manufacturing plant, with operations ending 1 April 2026 and 68 employees losing their jobs; no reason was disclosed. Public information is limited: Wikipedia lists revenue as "not communicated" and flags the article for promotional content. One aggregator source (SalesTools) reports a "$15B public round at a $16B valuation" dated 2024-01-01 along with a 16,000+ employee count, which conflicts with the company's own reported headcount of about 5,000 and with the 2023 take-private transaction, and appears unreliable.