The European Commission said on Thursday that it has cleared the proposed acquisition of scientific instruments supplier Varian Inc by measurement company Agilent Technologies Inc.

This decision is conditional upon certain operations being divested, namely Agilent's entire micro/portable gas chromatography instrument business and Varian's entire laboratory gas chromatography, triple quadrupole gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry instrument businesses.

If this is done, the European Union is satisfied that the merger would not hinder effective competition in the analytical instruments field, Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said.

According to Agilent the two companies have initiated a process for selling these businesses, which had combined revenues of under USD100m in fiscal 2009.

The deal remains subject to US Federal Trade Commission clearance and other regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. It is expected to be completed in early 2010.