Varian Spins Off Varex Imaging Systems

Varian Spins Off Varex Imaging Systems

A medical imaging company is born. Or, rather, another medical imaging company goes public. Varian Medical Systems Inc. (NYSE: VAR) paid $276 million for the medical imaging business of PerkinElmer (NYSE: PKI) back in December 2016. That business, based in Santa Clara, California, supplies flat panel x-ray detectors that serve as components for industrial, medical and dental x-ray imaging systems. That deal was part of Varian’s plan to spin off its Imaging Components business. That feat was accomplished in January 2017, with the launch of Varex Imaging Corporation (NASDAQ: VREX), with a market cap of $1.09 billion. Under the terms of the separation, Varian stockholders received 0.4... Read More »

December 2016 Didn’t Deliver a Year-End Boost

The final month of the fourth quarter is typically a busy one for deal makers in all industries. Last year, some health care deal makers apparently got a rest. Deal volume in December 2016 was an anemic 119 transactions, compared with 131 deals in November and 148 in December 2015. The Services sectors accounted for 55% of the deals in December, which is on the low side. Consider that, in November, Services accounted for 69% of the month’s transactions, and even 70% of the total in December 2015. Spending on those deals reached $15.4 billion, a relatively modest amount until it is compared with November’s $8.7 billion total (+78%) and December 2015’s $12.3 billion total (+26%). Suddenly,... Read More »

2016 Delivered on Health Care M and A

As health care mergers and acquisitions go, 2016 lived up to the predictions that M&A activity would stay strong. Preliminary data for year-end totals shows 1,536 announced transactions across 13 healthcare sectors. The total represents a 1% increase in deal volume compared with 2015. (See chart below.) Spending on those deals was significantly lower than the previous year, at least for now. The combined total spending in 2016 now stands at $255.7 billion, down 36% compared with 2015’s $400.3 billion. Nearly $100 billion of that total now hangs in the balance, as two of 2015’s largest deals (Anthem/Cigna and Aetna/Humana) await decisions from a federal judge regarding... Read More »

Abbott to Alere: It’s You, Not Me

The party’s about over for the $5.8 billion Abbott (NYSE: ABT) acquisition of Alere Inc. (NYSE: ALR). Everything was bright and rosy when Abbott agreed to pay $56.00 per share for the point-of-care diagnostics and services company. Now, the $177 million termination fee Abbott faces to get out of the deal looks pretty cheap. In April, Abbott reportedly offered Alere $50 million to terminate the deal, but got no takers. The trouble began almost immediately. The day of the announcement, February 1, Alere’s stock price shot up nearly 46%, to $54.11. But later that month,  it announced would delay filing its 2015 financial results with securities regulators due to revenue recognition... Read More »

November Sees a Surge in Lab Deals

Four deals in our Laboratories, MRI & Dialysis sector have been announced in the first half of November. That much activity constitutes a surge for this sector, which now stands at 39 deals through all of 2016. With only six weeks left in the year, it seems unlikely that this sector will surpass 2015’s total of 52 deals. On November 1st, Vital Images, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba Medical Systems Group, acquired Karos Health for an undisclosed price. Karos Health provides standards-based clinical imaging exchange and cross-enterprise workflow and diagnostic imaging solutions. The combined technologies provide a customer-centric, modular platform that allows hospital systems to solve a... Read More »

What U.S. Hospitals Are Acquiring in 2016

Hospital acquisitions have surged since the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010. That year, 76 deals were announced, with a U.S. hospital or health system as a target. By 2012, 107 transactions were recorded for hospital targets, and that still stands as the highest number of deals per year. Only 2015 came close, with 102 hospital transactions. Through mid-November, there have been 79 deals announced with U.S. hospitals or health systems as the target. But what are U.S. hospitals acquiring for their own financial health? Other hospitals or health systems make up the majority of targets every year, of course.  So far this year, through mid November, 66 transactions... Read More »