 X-Rite, a supplier of color measurement instruments and software, purchased Pantone for $180 million in October 2007, and was itself acquired by Danaher Corporation in 2012.Pantone began in New Jersey in the 1950s as the commercial printing company of brothers Mervin and Jesse Levine, M & J Levine Advertising.In 1956, its founders, both advertising executives, hired recent Hofstra University graduate Lawrence Herbert as a part-time employee.