Guidant

Guidant Corporation, a part of Boston Scientific, designs and manufactures artificial pacemakers, implantable defibrillators, stents, and other cardiovascular medical products. Their company headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Their main competitors are Medtronic, St. Jude Medical, and Johnson and Johnson. Guidant was once a part of Eli Lilly.

Acquisition, Recalls, Merger
Johnson & Johnson announced that it was acquiring Guidant on December 15, 2004, for $76 a share, at a cost of $25.4 billion. The deal was approved by Guidant stockholders on April 27, 2005. On May 25, Guidant reported 26 cases of implantable defibrillator failure, including one death. The same day, the New York Times published an article accusing Guidant of waiting years before notifying physicians about the problems. On June 17, Guidant issued a safety advisory on seven models of defibrillator, followed a week later by advising doctors to discontinue use of four models. The scope of the problems steadily increased, and on July 18, Guidant issued a warning for nine different models of pacemakers from 1997 to 2000.

The next day, Johnson & Johnson warned that the acquisition may be delayed due to these issues. On September 22, Guidant issued safety advisories and recalls for 170,000 of their pacemakers, 56% of their total pacemakers. On October 18, Johnson & Johnson gave an announcement that they were exploring alternatives to the acquisition, followed by a November 2 warning that they might pull out of the deal due to the regulatory issues and legal liabilities.

On November 7, Guidant sued Johnson & Johnson to force them to complete the deal. On November 15, the two companies announced a renegotiated purchase price of $63 a share, or $21.5 billion, a 15% price reduction. On December 5th, 2005, Boston Scientific made a surprise unsolicited $24.6 billion bid to acquire Guidant, offering $72 per share of Guidant, $36 in cash and a fixed number of Boston Scientific shares valued at $36 a share. Guidant's stock price rose 10% on the news. The offer was not actually finalized until after due diligence had been completed on January 8, 2006.

On January 11, 2006, Johnson & Johnson presented a counteroffer of $23.2 billion, still less than their original 2004 bid, which the Guidant board accepted. The next day, Boston Scientific increased their bid to $25 billion, followed the next day by Johnson & Johnson increasing their bid to $24.2 billion. It was not until January 17 that Boston Scientific produced a new offer of $27.2 billion ($80 per share), with the help of Abbott Laboratories. Abbott agreed to purchase $1.4 billion of Boston Scientific stock and pay $4.1 billion for Guidant's vascular intervention business upon completion of the merger. Without Abbott's financial assistance, it would have been unlikely that Boston Scientific could have produced the counteroffer.

On January 25, 2006, after Johnson & Johnson refused to raise their bid higher than $24.2 billion, Guidant declared Boston Scientific's offer "clearly superior" and accepted their bid. Guidant will pay a $705 million termination fee to Johnson & Johnson.

On April 21, 2006, the deal with Boston Scientific was complete.

Locations

 * Indianapolis, Indiana (Guidant World Headquarters)
 * Redmond, Washington (Cardiac Rhythm Management)
 * Santa Clara, California (Vascular Intervention, Endovascular Solutions, Cardiac Surgery)
 * Arden Hills, Minnesota (Cardiac Rhythm Management)
 * Temecula, California (Vascular Intervention)
 * Clonmel, Ireland (Manufacturing)
 * Dorado, Puerto Rico (Manufacturing)