Boston Scientific Shuffles and Sells in Bid to Right Ship

A year ago, Boston Scientific Corp. president and CEO Jim Tobin was outlining his steps to fix its newly acquired prize, Guidant, which he said had been languishing with operational and quality control problems, particularly in its much-prized ICD business. [See Deal] (See "How to Fix a Guidant: Boston Scientific's Tobin Opens Playbook," IN VIVO, December 2006 Also see "How To Fix A Guidant: Boston Scientific's Tobin Opens Playbook" - In Vivo, 1 December, 2006.)

While those clean-up activities are still underway, Boston Scientific management has spent the last few months looking within to find operations that need fixing and more important, to find cash and cost savings to manage its huge debt, particularly in the wake of a drug-eluting stent business that is retrenching because of safety concerns on the part of interventional cardiologists and (anticipated) increased competition from other cardiovascular device giants, most notably Medtronic Inc. , whose Endeavor DES was recently approved. To solve its financial problems, Boston Scientific is undergoing a moderate restructuring, identifying assets that aren’t critical to its primary cardiovascular or cardiac rhythm management businesses. It’s also cleaning out its public and private portfolios, selling off its shares in close to 100 companies