Danaher Corporation is a globally diversified conglomerate with its headquarters in Washington, D.C., United States. Danaher is ranked 162nd on the 2018 Fortune 500 list.^[2] It operates in four segments: environmental & applied solutions, life sciences, diagnostics, and dental.^[3] Danaher is currently ranked by Forbes as one of the best employers for diversity.^[4]

The company was organized in 1969 as a Massachusetts real estate investment trust under its former name DMG, Inc. In 1978, DMG, Inc. was reorganized as a Florida corporation and changed its name to Diversified Mortgage Investors, Inc. Eventually, the company adopted the name Danaher in 1984 and was reincorporated as a Delaware corporation.^[1] In June 1986, Danaher purchased Chicago Pneumatic ("CP"), which had just recently merged in July 1984 with a sister company, The Jacobs Manufacturing Co. ("Jacobs"), and which had purchased Matco Tools Corp. ("MTC") in April 1981.

Danaher in June 1987 sold CP while retaining Jacobs, including its Matco Tools Division. Jacobs' name was changed to Matco Tools Corp. in November 1991, and the other divisions within Jacobs were established as separate operating companies. In January 1993, Danaher formed NMTC, Inc., which acquired a substantial portion of the assets of MTC, including the existing distributorship agreements of MTC.

The company is named after Danaher Creek in western Montana. It was fishing in this creek where the Rales brothers, Steven and Mitchell, envisioned a new kind of manufacturing company dedicated to continuous improvement.^[5] Danaher was one of the first companies in North America to adopt "kaizen" principles to manufacturing. ^[6] Kaizen being a Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement, and elimination of waste (see lean manufacturing).

Within two years of Danaher Corp.'s founding in 1984, Danaher Corp. acquired 12 companies as part of a strategy to enter the manufacturing business. Therefore, in 1986 Danaher added Qualitrol to its instrumentation unit.^[7] The unit also included Gilbarco Veeder-Root's underground fuel storage sensors, Dynapar's motion sensors^[8] and Qualitrol's pressure and temperature measurement instruments, used on the electrical transformer industry.^[9]

The Danaher Motion group acquired Kollmorgen, of Radford, Virginia.^[10]

1990 Danaher acquires Easco Hand Tools Inc. ^[11] 1991 Danaher is selected as exclusive supplier of handtools for Sears. 1994 Danaher acquires the tool company Armstrong- makers of tool brands Armstrong, Allen, and others. Since 1999 Danaher owns 100% of Hach company, broadening the portfolio of chemical, mainly water and wastewater, analytics also with the german company Lange.

UK-based West Instruments provides control and measurement instrumentation solutions and services for the global industrial and process markets. German instrumentation manufacturer PMA was added to the Industrial Controls Group in 2005 and enhances the range of control and measurement instrumentation solutions.

In July 2005, Danaher Announces Definitive Agreement To Acquire Leica Microsystems.^[12] The company manufactures a broad range of products for numerous applications requiring microscopic imaging, measurement and analysis. It also offers system solutions in the areas of Life Science including biotechnology and medicine, as well as the science of raw materials and industrial quality assurance.

In early 2007 Danaher acquired Australian Pathology Instrument and Engineering company Vision Systems Limited.^[13] Also in 2007, Danaher made its largest acquisition to date, the purchase of Tektronix, Inc. for 2.85 billion USD.^[14][15]

In 2009 Danaher purchased the Analytical Technologies business unit of Canadian Life Sciences company MDS, Inc. for $650 million USD.^[16] In a separate, but related transaction, Danaher agreed with Life Technologies Corporation (Nasdaq: LIFE) to acquire the remaining 50% ownership position in AB SCIEX for $450 million USD, leaving Danaher as outright owner of AB SCIEX and Molecular Devices. The aggregate purchase price for the combined transactions is $1.1 billion.^[17]

In 2011 Danaher entered into a definitive merger agreement with Beckman Coulter^[18] and sold Accu-sort to Datalogic.

In October 2012, Danaher Corporation and Cooper Industries agreed to sell their joint venture, Apex Tool Group, to Bain Capital for a fee of around $1.6 billion.^[19] In December 2012 Danaher Corporation acquired Navman Wireless, a provider of on-demand fleet and asset management technology.^[20]

In September 2014, Danaher Corp announced its intention to buy Nobel Biocare for $2.2 billion.^[21] In October 2014, Danaher Corp announced it would be combining its communications unit with NetScout Systems.^[22] The action was completed in July 2015^[23]

In May 2015, Danaher Corp announced the acquisition of Pall for $13.8 billion,^[24] which was completed in August 2015.^[25]

In June 2016, Danaher spun off several subsidiaries, including Matco and AMMCO-COATS, to create Fortive.^[26] In September of the same year, the company announced it would acquire Cepheid for $4 billion (including debt).^[27]

In October 2016, Danaher Corporation acquired Phenomenex for $700 million to expand its life sciences space.^[28]

In October 2017, Danaher Corp announced the acquisition of scientific informatics company ID Business Solutions Ltd. (IDBS).^[29] It was announced that IDBS would become part of Danaher's life sciences platform.^[30]

In 2017, Danaher recorded $18.3 billion in revenue.^[31]

In March 2018, the business announced it would acquire Integrated DNA Technologies for an undisclosed price.^[32]

In July 2018, Danaher announced its intention to spin off its $2.8 billion Dental segment, into an independent publicly traded company. ^[33]

In February 2019, Danaher agreed to buy General Electric’s biopharmaceutical business, GE Life Sciences, for $21.4 billion. The unit makes equipment for the research and manufacture of pharmaceuticals.^[34]

Other brands (Note: As of July 2016, some of these are now part of Fortive)