Covidien closes $108M bid for Newport Medical

After 6 weeks and $108 million spent, Covidien ($COV) is the proud new owner of Newport Medical Instruments in what is becoming another heady year of acquisitions for its device division.

The healthcare products and medical device giant announced in late March that it would snatch up the Costa Mesa, CA-based company, which makes ventilators sold in 115-plus countries. Covidien has said it is beefing up its respiratory product line through the deal with a particular focus on emerging markets. Its offer is net of cash and acquired short-term investments, and the Newport Medical business joins Covidien's airway and ventilation product line in its medical device division.

Meanwhile, Covidien is gunning away with three more device-related acquisitions so far this year that are either in the pipeline or recently completed.

In April, Covidien disclosed that it inked a deal to buy Jerusalem-based Oridion Systems for about $346 million, which will add safety monitoring technology in addition to proprietary medical devices and patient interfaces to its roster. Prior to that deal, Covidien grabbed Israel's superDimension for more than $300 million, gaining that company's minimally invasive interventional pulmonology devices.

And earlier this week, Covidien revealed that it had scooped up Israeli startup PolyTouch Medical for an undisclosed price. PolyTouch developed a device to place hernia mesh laparoscopically that became Covidien's AccuMesh positioning system. AccuMesh launched commercially in the U.S. in March.

- here's the release