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Covidien Acquisitions Keeps Buying Spree Alive

Since its spin-out from Tyco, Covidien has spent close to $5 billion acquiring public and privately held device companies, with more than $1 billion of that being spent just over the past six months. The string of purchases bulked up every one of Covidien’s existing medical device businesses. In the recent acquisition of superDimension, Covidien paid $300 million plus earn-outs for the maker of the iLogic system, which uses electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy technology. The purchase means Covidien’s sales force will begin calling more on interventional pulmonologists, potentially creating an exit route for other pulmonary start-ups.

The only predictable part of Medtronic Minimally Invasive Therapies’s acquisition strategy is there’s no sign of it slowing down. For the past five years, since its spin-out from Tyco International Ltd., [See Deal] the multinational device company has spent close to $5 billion acquiring public and privately held device companies, with more than $1 billion of that being spent just over the past six months on privately held Barrx Medical Inc., Newport Medical Instruments Inc., Reverse Medical Corp., Oridion Systems Ltd., and superDimension Ltd.[See Deal][See Deal][See Deal][See Deal][See Deal]

The string of purchases bulked up every one of Covidien’s existing medical device businesses. (See Exhibit 1.) For example, Covidien’s...

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