BELFAST-based defibrillator maker HeartSine Technologies has a new parent after its current owner was formally acquired yesterday in a £1 billion all-cash deal by a US fortune 500 firm.
Medical device maker Stryker Corp said it would buy Physio-Control International Inc for $1.28 billion in cash to expand its emergency medical services business.
Physio-Control bought HeartSine last September for an undisclosed sum in a move which created one of the world's automated external defibrillator (AED) solutions providers.
Washington-based Physio-Control was a unit of heart device maker Medtronic Plc since 1998, but was spun-off in 2006. Five years later, a unit of Bain Capital Private Equity acquired Physio-Control, which had fiscal 2015 sales of more than $500 million.
HeartSine, founded in 1997, develops the smallest, lightest and most portable defibrillator available in the world, which it sells to customers in 70 countries.
It employs around 100 staff in Belfast, and in its last trading year made a gross profit of £5.7 million on a turnover of £12.3m.
The company sells between 25,000 and 30,000 units a year to global customers such as BP, American Airlines and the Singapore military.
“Physio-Control has achieved global leadership positions with a strong brand and customer-centred solutions that can predict or intervene in life-threatening emergencies,” said Stryker chief executive Kevin Lobo.
“Its focused strategy and their culture will fit well within the emergency medical services division of our business, further leveraging our existing call pattern.”
The deal is expected to close at the beginning of the second quarter.
