Guidant

In contrast to pharma and biotech sectors, both of which are suffering from protracted growing pains, the medical device sector is red hot and likely to get hotter, writes The New York Times. All you have to do is look at the bidding war over Guidant. As "wave after wave of baby boomers" hits the market, business is only going to get better, the paper argues. The fusion of medicine and information technology is leading to a new generation of consumer-friendly devices designed to …

Guidant's board declared a new $27 billion bid by Boston Scientific "superior." Johnson & Johnson has until January 24th to match the offer. As more details of the new deal emerged, it's clear that Abbott Laboratories is playing a larger role than previously believed. The company will contribute up to $6 billion in financing to support Boston Scientific's bid. Meanwhile, all the talk of medical devices is apparently exciting Wall Street and some analysts suspect that St. Jude may be …

Guidant shares surged this morning after Boston Scientific raised its bid for the company to $27 billion, or $80 per share, topping rival Johnson & Johnson's offer of $24.2 billion. The offer bests the competing bid by nearly $10 a share. Boston Scientific has given Guidant until 5 p.m. Eastern to accept or decline the offer. The development is the latest twist in high stakes poker game over the future of the cardiac rhythm management device company. As part of the proposal, Abbott …

In the latest twist in the dramatic bidding war over Guidant, Boston Scientific upped its offer for the device maker to $25.5 billion but said the company must accept or decline the offer by this afternoon. The offer includes concessions intended to reassure Guidant's board that Boston Scientific will take the steps necessary to close the transaction quickly.

Many analysts think the Guidant board may accept the new offer unless Johnson & Johnson raises its bid. "We suspect that …

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Guidant accepted a $23.2 billion takeover offer from Johnson & Johnson, shocking analysts who had predicted that the company had lost the bidding war for the device maker. Guidant appeared to leave the door open for another offer from rival suitor Boston Scientific, however. Boston Scientific responded immediately, issuing a statement that concludes, "Our discussions with Guidant are ongoing. We intend to vigorously pursue this transaction to its completion." …

Boston Scientific raised its offer for Guidant to $25 billion as the bidding war between the company and Johnson & Johnson intensifies. Boston Scientific also said it has reached an agreement with Abbott Labs which would see the drug company pick up Guidant's vascular intervention business for about $4 billion. Analysts say the sale is necessary to satisfy antitrust regulators. Boston Scientific already has a strong stent business in its drug coated Taxus line, which had worldwide …

In the future, when business school classes meet to discuss the things that can go wrong when two companies decide to merge, it's likely that Guidant's agreement to be acquired by Johnson & Johnson will be held up as a key case study. Things went wrong almost from the start for the Indianapolis-based device maker, which found its case for a merger seriously damaged by the publicity surrounding major recalls of key pacemaker and defibrillator lines. At the time of writing, barring a …

Business schools are already treating the Johnson & Johnson/Guidant deal as a classic in management decision making. Did J&J do the right thing in pushing for a lower price for Guidant in light of the company's problems? The Wharton School's online magazine looks at the use of the material adverse event clause in this much-talked-about deal and examines management responses to a series of blockbuster deals that went south. Article

Johnson & Johnson will probably not match Boston Scientific's $25 billion offer for Guidant. Media reports suggest that the Guidant board is leaning toward accepting the Boston Scientific bid. The move, which took Wall Street by surprise, has dramatically improved Boston Scientific's standing among analysts. The device maker's stock has languished over the past year, despite the success of its Taxus stent.

- see this article from the AP