Medtronic adds heart devices in $1.1B HeartWare deal

LONDON – Medtronic PLC, the world’s biggest maker of heart-rhythm devices, agreed to buy HeartWare International Inc. for about $1.1 billion, paying a premium of 93 percent to gain less-invasive technology for treating advanced heart-failure patients.

Medtronic will pay $58 a share, almost double HeartWare’s Friday closing price of $29.98, according to a statement Monday. The boards of both companies have unanimously approved the transaction, which is expected to close during Medtronic’s second fiscal quarter ending Oct. 28.

HeartWare’s miniaturized ventricular assist devices, designed to reduce surgical invasiveness, will expand Medtronic’s offerings of diagnostic tools, therapies and services for patients who suffer from heart failures. Medtronic estimates that the global market for ventricular-assist devices is about $800 million and will increase by a percentage in the mid-to-high single digits this year and next.

The deal is Medtronic’s biggest since its $46 billion purchase of Dublin-based Covidien in January 2015, a transaction that gave it an Irish legal address through a so-called inversion structured to reduce U.S. income taxes.

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Heart failure is a condition or a collection of symptoms in which the heart isn’t pumping enough blood to meet the body’s needs. It remains a leading cause of hospitalization and death in the U.S., where more than 5 million people are affected.

HeartWave, based in Framingham, Mass., is also developing multiple technologies that will offer progressively less-invasive options for patients with end-stage heart failure, according to the statement.

Medtronic shares fell 2.4 percent to $81.30 at 7:49 a.m. in New York, before the markets opened. HeartWave gained 92 percent to $57.48. Through Friday, the shares had dropped 60 percent in 12 months.
Medtronic has a campus in Mansfield.

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