Abbott completes acquisition of St. Jude Medical
EconomicsAbbott St. Jude Medical acquisition atrial fibrillation Heart Failure
Abbott Laboratories completed its acquisition of St. Jude Medical Jan. 4, more than eight months after the companies agreed to the deal.
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Cardiovascular Business
Abbott Laboratories completed its acquisition of St. Jude Medical Jan. 4, more than eight months after the companies agreed to the deal.

St. Jude Medical’s shares stopped trading on the New York Stock Exchange that day. The company is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Abbott.

Abbott said in a news release that St. Jude Medical is a leader in atrial fibrillation, heart failure, structural heart and chronic pain, while Abbott is a leader in coronary interventions and mitral valve disease. The combined company will have a number one or two position in several segments of the $30 billion cardiovascular market, according to the release.

Abbott did not mention any leadership changes or financial details of the transaction. When the companies announced the proposed acquisition in April, Abbott said it would pay approximately $25 billion in a cash and stock transaction based on a St. Jude Medical stock price of approximately $85 per share. However, St. Jude Medical’s stock price closed at $80.82 per share on Jan. 4.

As part of the transaction, the companies sold St. Jude Medical's vascular closure device business and Abbott's steerable sheath business for $1.12 billion to Terumo Corporation. The Federal Trade Commission required the companies to sell those businesses.

Abbott continued to pursue the deal even after a research firm called Muddy Waters questioned the potential hacking of St. Jude Medical’s pacemakers and defibrillators. St. Jude Medical then filed a lawsuit against Muddy Waters, a cybersecurity research firm and three employees of those companies.

In October, St. Jude Medical warned of premature battery depletions in a small number of its implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) and cardiac resynchronization therapy ICDs.

St. Jude Medical was incorporated in Minnesota in 1976 and went public the next year. The company’s first heart valve was implanted at the University of Minnesota in 1977.

With the St. Jude Medical deal now closed, Abbott is looking to get out of its proposed acquisition of Alere, which develops diagnostics tests for cardiometabolic disease, infectious disease and toxicology. Abbott agreed in January to acquire Alere for $5.8 billion, but Abbott filed a lawsuit last month to terminate the proposed deal. Alere recalled devices, was involved in government subpoenas and delayed filing its 10-K in 2015 for five months.

Alere said in a news release that “Abbott’s lawsuit is entirely without merit” and that “none of the issues it has raised provides it with any grounds to avoid closing the merger.”