GC/MS, GC/MS/MS or GC/MSn

[Schmitty]

I believe Agilent bought Varian early last year. I don't recall if there was a consensus about whether or not they were going to try to keep both lines of MS/MS instruments.

[yanner]

Could that be the reason for the lower price?

[Schmitty]

Coincidentally, I just got this email from Varian:

"January 22, 2010
Dear Valued Customer,
On Thursday the 21st of January, Agilent and Varian jointly announced that we have passed a key milestone toward completing our merger: The European Commission (EC) has granted conditional antitrust clearance for Agilent’s acquisition of Varian. I am pleased to inform you of this important progress. I also want to let you know about some additional actions associated with that clearance and how we will proceed.
As you are aware, Agilent and Varian are still separate companies. We are keenly focused on serving your new needs as well as continuing to support the products purchased from Varian in the past. The entire Varian team looks forward to the expanded capabilities that we will have to serve you when Varian is part of Agilent. Accordingly, it is very positive that we now have the EC conditional clearance and that it clarifies the key actions required for completing the merger. Agilent’s proposed acquisition of Varian remains subject to other regulatory approvals as well as other customary closing conditions. We still expect the acquisition to close in early calendar 2010.
As part of the EC’s clearance, Agilent and Varian have committed to sell the following product lines:
•Varian’s laboratory GC product line (which does not include our GC analyzer, micro-GC or GC columns product lines);
•Varian’s GC-MS triple quad product line;
•Varian’s ICP-MS product line; and
•Agilent’s micro-GC product line.
The three Varian product lines on the list are strong and have been used and valued by many of you. Just as most of Varian will grow as part of Agilent, each of these three product lines will continue to develop as new elements of another company.
Agilent and Varian have initiated a process for selling these product lines, and have already engaged with a number of interested purchasers. We are committed to making this process successful and will pay special attention to ensuring that all of our customers remain fully supported during and beyond the divestiture process. We know that meeting those objectives should, in turn, provide good opportunities for our employees, the people on whom you have relied for innovation, information and support.
Our customers’ engagement and loyalty in the months since this acquisition was announced have been gratifying. As the 13 new products we introduced in the first quarter and additional new products scheduled for introduction this quarter reflect, there is continued high momentum across our product development teams. In addition, many thousands of potential customers have contacted us for information in response to our broader range of communication modes including The Varian Experience web site, the new consumables catalogues and new product introduction campaigns. We look forward to continuing to work with you.
Sincerely,
Garry W. Rogerson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer"

[Ron]

Varian is selling the GC and GCMS product lines to resolve anti-trust issues in the Agilent purchase of Varian. You might want to hold off on buying a Varian instrument until you know who the new owner will be. The company will probably be much smaller than Varian, and that could have an impact on service and support. There is no way of telling at this point how many current Varian employees will go to the new owner. There are a lot of unknowns at this time about what will happen to these products.

[yanner]

In other words... it's not the best idea to buy a Varian in this situation (?)

[Ron]

The purchase of a Varian may be perfectly satisfactory, but there are potential issues. As long as a person is aware of the issues and is prepared to deal with the possibility of difficulties with warranty claims, parts, and service you may be ok.

I often drive by a Saturn dealership and the same cars have been sitting out front for months. The uncertainties about warranty, parts, and service have discouraged people from buying even though GM is supposedly going to stand behind the vehicles.

The press release above is a statement of the company's intentions, and I believe it is sincere, but no one knows what the reality is. If you already had similar instruments and are familiar with the routine maintenance and repairs buying the instrument may make sense.

[yanner]

Thank you for your help!... a new idea... Shimadzu GCxGC/MS... do someone know how it (this method) works with a Quad?

[Ron]

Are you talking about the Deans Switch or the comprehensive 2-D system using the ZOEX thermal modulator?

[yanner]

ZOEX thermal modulator

[Ron]

The system works well within the limits imposed by the scan rate. The data acquisition rate is not as fast as a TOF, but is good for many analyses. The maximum scan rate is 10,000 amu/sec, and the maximum number of scans per second that can be acquired is 50, with a mass range of approximately 100 amu. Using a mass range from 50 to 400 amu, which will cover a wide range of compounds, the acquisition rate is 25 scans/sec, which will give good 2-D images.

[yanner]

Unfortunately I haven’t any experiences with GCxGC… so perhaps a silly question… but can I use the 2-D images for a good quantitation? like you have written in a m/z range 50-400

[stb75]

Yanner, I have heard that you can upgrade your 5975C to a Triple Quad. A company called Chromsys do this for far cheaper than a new Triple Quad system. The system can still run in Single Quad mode and the sensitivity virtually the same. If you upgrade, the MS/MS S/N for 100 fg of OFN is apparently about 400:1.

I wonder how Agilent's purchase of Varian is going to influence the Varian product line?

[Ron]

Comprehensive 2-D gc can be used fpr quantitative work, but is usually used for qualitative work. There are some issues with quantitative work using comptehensive 2-D, and there is a lot of work going on regarding the theory of quantitation using mulitdimensional data.

If you need quantitative analysis of just a few compounds in a complex matrix then a Deans Switch system is probably a better choice.