Top 12 public test and measurement companies by revenue

The test and measurement space is one that has seen a significant amount of consolidation over the years. But even as some companies combine through mergers and acquisitions, others are becoming pure-play wireless-focused test companies, such as Agilent Technologies’ spinoff of Keysight Technologies, and Anite selling its travel division earlier this year to focus solely on the wireless space.
Here are the 12 biggest test and measurement companies by revenue as of their most recent financial report for full-year earnings. Where possible, both overall company revenue and segment revenue are broken out, but the companies are ranked by consolidated revenues. This list includes only public companies or those with recent financial information available (and thus does not include companies like Azimuth Systems or National Technical Systems, which are privately held).
1. Danaher owns well-known test and measurement brands through acquisitions: Tektronix and Fluke Networks. Although Danaher’s test and measurement segment is only a small part of its operations — accounting for $3.4 billion in sales in 2013, compared to $19.1 billion in revenues for the entire company — its brands are significant players in the test and measurement market.
2. Agilent: $6.8 billion in revenue for the total company in its most recent full-year reporting, which includes electronic test and measurement, life sciences and chemical analysis. The electronic test and measurement business, which has begun operating under the Keysight Technologies brand and will be completely separated from Agilent in early November, generally accounts for more than 40% of revenue in a given quarter.
3-4. This spot is a tie, with Elektrobit and Rohde & Schwarz both reporting 1.9 billion Euros, or more than $2.5 billion, in company revenues during their most recent fiscal years. Elektrobit gets most of its revenues from its automotive business: about $183 million vs. about $81 million in its wireless segment. Elektrobit’s wireless division has been struggling, though, and Elektrobit sold its Test Tools segment to Anite in early 2013. Meanwhile, Rohde & Schwarz is privately held and does limited reporting, but it did include some figures in its annual report. The company’s consolidated revenue figure includes its test and measurement segment as well as R&S’ operations in broadcasting, secure communications, radiomonitoring and radiolocation.
5. Cobham makes the list because of its in-progress purchase of Aeroflex for $1.46 billion. Cobham reported about $2.4 billion in revenues in 2013.
6. JDSU: $1.7 billion in revenue for the company’s most recent fiscal year. JDSU operates three business segments, with its network services and enablement segment ($748 million in revenue in FY2014)  and communications and commercial optical products segment ($794 million in revenue) as the largest. Its optical security and performance products division accounted for $200.8 million in net revenue for the year.
7.  National Instruments (NI) reported $1.17 billion in annual revenue for 2013, which was a record for the company.
8. Anritsu: about $981 million in revenues for its FY2013, which was up 26% year-over-year. The company’s testing segment revenues grew faster than 6% year-over-year.
9. Ixia: Despite turmoil in its leadership, Ixia reported record revenue for its fiscal 2013 — $467.3 million, up 13% year-over-year. Ixia has been making very profitable acquisitions over the past couple of years that are positively impacting its revenues; the company said that FY2013 included $4.8 million from its purchase of Net Optics last December, plus $138.2 million from its 2012 acquisitions of Anue and Breaking Point.
10. Spirent Communications: $413.5 million in revenue during 2013. The test and measurement company has three segments. Its networks and applications segment accounted for 52% of revenues during the year, with wireless and applications coming in at 40% and its services assurance division accounting for 8%.
11. EXFO reported $242 million in revenues during its fiscal 2013 and specializes in test and measurement for both wireless and wireline networks.
12. Anite reported $145 million in adjusted revenue for its most recent full-year results. The company operates both in network testing and handset testing, with handset testing accounting about about $103 million of its revenues for the year and network testing seeing particular growth, with revenues coming in at about $42 million. It sold its travel business earlier this year to become a pure-play wireless company.