Dive Brief:
- Abbott Laboratories has agreed to buy St. Jude Medical in a cash-and-stock deal worth $25 billion.
- If completed, the combined companies will comprise one of the world’s largest cardiovascular devices manufacturers.
- Both companies’ boards have approved the move, which still needs shareholder and regulatory approvals.
Dive Insight:
The proposed merger would bring together Abbott’s expertise in coronary intervention valve repair and St. Jude’s forte in heart failure devices, catheters and defibrillators — with roughly $8.7 billion in annual sales for Memphis, TN-based medical device manufacturer.
The acquisition comes after St. Jude Medical's $3-billion acquisition of Thoratec, a manufacturer of devices for heart failure, was finalized last October. With such talent, Abbott seeks to fortify it's heart failure business line.
During a Thursday conference call, Abbott Chairman and CEO Miles White said that combining the companies would enable them to more effectively compete in an increasingly tight U.S. market, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“The value of having breadth in your product lines, the changing way the healthcare community has consolidated or purchases or selects products, all those factors come to a point over time where the strategic value of Abbott and St. Jude coming together becomes compelling,” White said.
In a press release announcing the proposed merger, White said the combined companies’ will have “a powerful pipeline ready to deliver next-generation medical technologies and offer improved efficiencies” for healthcare systems worldwide.
The merger coincides with an increase in heart disease in the U.S. According to the firms, estimates suggest that more than 40% of adults in the country will have some form of heart disease by 2030.