Over the last decade, $301 billion was spent on 1,496 medical device mergers and acquisitions, according to DealSearchOnline.com. Novartis' $39 billion buyout of Nestle's 77 percent interest in Alcon took the top spot as the largest medical device deal in the last decade. Boston Scientific's $27.2 billion acquisition of Guidant Corporation in 2005 came in second.
Several big players in the device industry appeared twice on the site's list of the 25 largest medical device acquisitions. Siemens bought both Dade Behring Holdings and Bayer HealthCare Diagnostics in 2007 and 2006, respectively. Abbott Labs and Medtronic also boast multiple mega-deals in the last 10 years.
Not surprisingly, revenue-producing medical device companies represent the most likely buyers, with many of the top 25 posting revenues in the billions at the time of acquisition. Eighty percent of buyers were publicly traded companies. Meanwhile, privately held companies were the target in the largest percentage (69 percent) of medical device M&A.
- here's the DealSearchOnline.com release