Year’s Biggest Billion-Dollar Deals Top $64 Billion

Already in 2015, we’ve recorded 11 billion-dollar-plus deals, for a total of $64.4 billion. Thanks to the $21 billion AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) bid for Pharmacyclics (NASDAQ: PCYC), the biotechnology sector accounted for $27.5 billion of those big deals. Pharmaceuticals, with four billion-plus transactions, still ranks first, with combined spending of $30.45 billion.  Read More »

What U.S. Health Care Companies Are Buying Overseas

We’re hosting a webinar on March 12 called  Cross-Border M&A: Opportunities and Issues. As a run-up to it, here’s a peek at what U.S. health care companies have bought overseas in 2015, excluding the typical pharma/biotech rights and licensing deals. We’ve seen 13 acquisitions of foreign companies so far, better than the 10 recorded in the same period in 2014. In the first two months of this year, $2.3 billion has been committed to those transactions. See the chart below. Read More »

Cross-Border Merger in Medical Devices

With only four deals announced in January, it seemed as if M&A in the medical devices sector was drying up. Not quite, as 11 announcements surfaced in February. The largest came last week, as Sorin SpA (MIL: SRN) agreed to merge with Houston-based Cyberonics Inc. (NASDAQ: CYBX). The all-stock transaction produces a combined equity value of approximately $2.7 billion. If all goes according to plan, Cyberonics shareholders will own 54% of the new company upon closing, which translates to a purchase price of about $1.24 billion. The new company, still to be named, combines two global leaders in cardiac surgery and neuromodulation, and will be a major player in cardiac rhythm management,... Read More »