Medical Device Link.

4/7/08

*NEW*

MDL Finance now features a "Daily Financial News" section. It will bring you the latest business news from the medical device industry, with updates every weekday.

This Week

Kinetic Concepts Inc (kci) announced the $1.7 billion acquisition of LifeCell (lifc) on Monday. The move was touted by the new partners as creating a "global medical technology leader," with LifeCell contributing their tissue repair technologies to Kinetic Concepts' business, which has its roots in wound care and therapeutic systems. Wall Street greeted the news by rewarding shareholders of both stocks. Kinetic Concepts shares were up 5% in midday trading on Monday, while LifeCell stock rose almost 17%, which was the premium that Kinetic Concepts was buying the stock for, at $51 per share. To listen to a conference call related to the acquisition, follow the link in the "Upcoming Webcasts" section of this page. ... ev3 (evvv) stock fell off 9% before the markets opened on Monday, mostly due to the release of Q1 revenue numbers that came in almost $6 million under the company's 2008 guidance of $107 million. The company's CEO also resigned on Monday.

Last Week

Medrad, a subsidiary of Bayer AG (bay), completed a tender offer to acquire Possis Medical (poss) on Wednesday. Bayer owned 93% of Possis stock as of last Wednesday, and will seek to acquire the rest through a public tender offer of $19.50 per share. ... Angiodynamics (ango) shares rose more than 12% on Thursday after the company announced a profit for Q3 2008 and announced 2008 revenue and profit guidance that outpaced what analysts expected. ... Abbott Laboratories (abt) stock rose more than 3% on Monday after releasing results of a trial that said its new Xience drug-eluting stent outperforms Boston Scientific's (bsx) market-leading Taxus stent, with fewer Xience patients having problems within the two year timespan of the study. ... Boston Scientific continued to roll on with its plan to sell off some parts of its business, this week successfully shedding its division that created devices to repair aortic aneurysms to a private holding company. Despite the news about Abbott Labs' stents, Boston Scientific stock was still up slightly on Monday afternoon. ...