STRYKER BUYS TWO COMPANIES IN FEBRUARY (Orthopedics This Week)
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Over the course of two days in February, Stryker Corporation announced agreements to acquire Berchtold Holding, AG, and Pivot Medical, Inc. for the company’s MedSurg and Neurotechnology division.
Berchtold, a privately held business in Germany and the U.S., sells surgical infrastructure equipment. The purchase price is $172 million. Pivot, is a Sunnyvale, California, privately held company that sells products for hip arthroscopy. No purchase price was provided for the Pivot acquisition in the press announcement.
According to the company release, Berchtold has been selling healthcare equipment for over 90 years and had sales of approximately $125 million in 2013. Their product portfolio includes surgical tables, equipment booms, and surgical lighting systems geared towards maximizing efficiency and safety in operating rooms and ICUs (intensive care units). Stryker said combining Berchtold’s solutions with their own endoscopy operating room equipment portfolio “will create a comprehensive, quality-focused offering equipped to satisfy a wide range of customer needs around the globe.”
The Berchtold acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2014.
Pivot was founded in 2007 with a focus on hip arthroscopy procedures treating femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAI). Pivot has a platform of instruments and implants to access and restore mobility to the hip with minimal incisions.
Hip arthroscopy, according to Stryker, is the fastest growing procedure in sports medicine resulting from improved procedural solutions and growing demand for less invasive solutions.
Timothy Scannell, Stryker’s group president, MedSurg and Neurotechnology, said the acquisition will allow Stryker to combine Pivot’s “innovative platforms in hip arthroscopy with Stryker’s knee and shoulder sports medicine solutions, and full line of arthroscopy visualization and tissue resection devices.”
That acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014.