Test and Measurement: Fortive expects strong growth in ’24

Testing company Fortive, whose T&M brands include Tektronix and Fluke, beat its guidance and saw fourth quarter 2024 revenue growth of 4% year-on-year.

Net earnings for the fourth quarter were $265 million, and for the full year, net earnings were $866 million.

The company said that it expects its full-year 2024 revenue to be between $6.4-$6.8 billion, up between 6-8% compared to 2023.

James A. Lico, Fortive’s president and CEO, said that the results reflected “outstanding operating performance” and added that the company’s portfolio of businesses is “delivering more consistent and profitable through-cycle growth.”

Fortive reported that its Precision Technologies segment, which includes its electronic T&M portfolio, saw a slight year-over-year drop in sales during the fourth quarter, from $553 million in 2022’s Q4 to $549.3 million in 2023. However, the segment’s full year sales for 2023 of $2.1 billion surpassed last year’s $2 billion.

Fortive completed a recent acquisition of EA Elektro-Automatik (EA) Holding GmbH in January.

In other test news:

-DesignCon was held this week, and test and measurement companies were out in force. Several test companies focused on a demonstration of 800G Active Copper Cable (ACC) products for hyperscale data center applications, with Keysight Technologies, Teledyne LeCroy and data center interconnect test specialist MultiLane Technologies all working with high-performance semiconductor company Spectra7. Meanwhile, Anritsu provided live demos of what it said was the world’s first PCIe Express 6.0 Link Training functionality and a four-port, 70 GHz differential vector network analyzer (VNA) system.

–Keysight Technologies is touting its validation for Skylo’s space-based networks.

–Rohde & Schwarz this week highlighted its work with Viavi Solutions on an integrated solution for automated conformance testing of Open RAN radio units (RUs), which was used to verify a commercial RU from NEC during the most recent O-RAN Alliance plugfest series.

Rohde also looked ahead to MWC Barcelona, where one of the technologies that it plans to spotlight is 5G Broadcast. The company, which offers both T&M solutions and solutions for the broadcast industry, said that it will demonstrate a “complete ecosystem” for 5G Broadcast and emphasize that “the system is ready for rollout” as a pathway to additional revenues for broadcasters and network operators.