Monday, September 14, 2009

Is Medtronic interested in acquiring Zimmer?

Recently, the Spine Blogger was speaking with industry professionals and overheard on the street that Medtronic was looking at a potential acquisition of Zimmer Medical Holdings. I know, where do I hear all these rumors? Well, this one came from a pretty good source.

So why would Medtronic look to acquire Zimmer? First of all the biggest factor would be market share, the next factor would be Zimmer's Recon and Trauma business in the U.S., and especially in Europe. This would open many different strategies for the company known as the "Evil Empire!"

Let's look at this for a moment. By acquiring Zimmer, Medtronic would immediately become a player in the THA and TKA markets, and open up greater marketing opportunities for Infuse as "pull through" business in Trauma. Think of the increase in revenue if your reps have BMP's as an adjunct to their trauma products.

But here is the $5 billion dollar question; "Can Medtronic acquire another company and not screw up the integration process? You know what many people on the street always say, "it's one thing to have the capital to buy a company, its a whole different scenario in integrating it!"

The Spine Blogger wants to know what the people on the street have heard?

5 comments:

  1. Would make sense - joints are the missing link in Medtronic's portfolio. If they're indeed interested in ortho then why not simply buy Smith & Nephew? Might as well, since many people at Medtronic worked at S&N prior and vice-versa. Also, they could easily connect their two buildings with a walkway - only a small field separates their two of their buildings in Memphis. Another candidate would be Wright Medical.

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  2. I agree with M Snyder. Certainly, Zimmer has more market share with joints. I'm not sure about Trauma. W/o researching it, I would think S&N has the edge there. Why would MSD want the spine baggage that would come with Zimmer? Do they have any great technology in the pipeline? Interesting nonetheless.

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  3. With all the issue MDT has had integrating Kyphon, how in the world could the integrate ANY total joint company?

    The "zimmer rumor" was hot and heavy last year, but I haven't heard squat since the "indegestion" with Kyphon.

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  4. Medtronic has issued another recall. Here is more information on it: http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/12307#more-12307

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  5. MDT owns Cleveland Clinic

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