The European Commission Thursday cleared Agilent Technologies Inc. (A), a US supplier of scientific instruments, to buy US peer Varian Inc. (VARI.), with the condition that both companies sell parts of their businesses.

The commission, the European Union's regulatory arm, was worried that the companies would have too large a market share for some analytical instruments used in laboratories.

To avoid antitrust problems, the commission required Agilent to sell its micro/portable gas chromatography instrument business. Varian had to sell its entire laboratory gas chromatography business and two other instrument businesses.

The $1.5 billion deal will allow Agilent to expand from industrial and life sciences markets into nuclear-magnetic-resonance, imaging and vacuum technology fields.

-By Carolyn Henson and Adam Cohen, Dow Jones Newswires; +32 2 741 1481; carolyn.henson@dowjones.com
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