by: TigerPosted on:

The end of Zimmer’s failed spine experiment and a restart at Highridge Medical

Overview of Highridge Medical from Orthopedics This Week

The Buyer

Highridge Medical’s senior leadership are among the most experienced, successful, and active spine industry executives. Executive board chairman is Eric Major, co-founder and CEO of K2M, which Stryker purchased in 2018 for $1.4 billion. Chief Executive Officer is Glenn Kashuba, whose 30+ year career in orthopedics and spine included, most recently, the CEO position at Cerapedics where he led that company to become the second largest supplier of bone graft products, behind Medtronic, in spine.

Highridge Medical generated about $400 million in sales and approximately $30 million in operating profit in 2023. Under this management, we would expect the company to quickly establish its identity and set out a plan to invest in innovation and differentiation leading ultimately to accelerated sales and market share in the spine and neurosurgery market. https://www.highridgemedical.com/

Three thoughts:

1/ ZB turns a $1,757M investments into $375M sale.

Adding up the costs of Zimmer spine acquisitions:

  • Spinal Concepts: $360 million
  • Lanx: $147 million
  • LDR: $1.0 billion
  • A&E Medical Corporation: $250 million
    Total Acquisition Costs: $1,757 million

2/ The market cap of ZimVie is $450M and they sell spine for $375M, so the remaining dental business may be worth only $75M after the sale. The $375M proceeds from the sale will be used to pay down some of the ZimVie debt. ZimVie is 100% a dental company now. https://www.zimvie.com/

3/ Rumors are that Highridge Medical will be rolling up more failed spine businesses to create a spine powerhouse. They will do this while the acquisition costs are bargains. Look for more spine acquisitions from Highridge Medical.


Read also – Don’t take advice from failed companies that don’t know why they are failing.