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J&J in Talks to Buy Guidant - Sources
By Julie Steenhuysen and Jessica Hall CHICAGO/PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Health care and consumer products maker Johnson & Johnson is in negotiations to acquire medical-device maker Guidant Corp., sources familiar with the situation said on Tuesday. The long-rumored deal could be worth more than $24 billion, according to The New York Times. Neither Guidant nor J&J would comment. Analysts said a deal would give J&J access to Guidant's fast-growing line of implantable defibrillators and pacemakers and pave the way for a next-generation drug-coated stent that could rival Boston Scientific Corp.'s top-selling Taxus heart device. News of a potential deal, which would be the biggest in medical device history, pushed shares of Guidant up 5 percent, while J&J's stock fell 1.5 percent. "It would be a nice merger," said Barry Hyman, chief investment strategist at Ehrenkrantz, King, Nussbaum. "If the deal passes antitrust rules ... it makes J&J a stronger company." Analysts believe a deal could add to J&J's earnings by 2006. That could be a salve to the company's ailing drug portfolio, which has a number of key products set to go off patent, including in 2005 its Duragesic pain patch, which has annual sales of $2 billion. Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Mark Landy said a deal makes sense strategically and would give J&J next-generation stent technology and the chance to bundle and sell hot devices to hospitals. "My concern is it's a short-term fix to a long-term problem," Landy said. "Guidant's business buys them time to figure out what they need to do in pharmaceuticals. It doesn't buy a growth platform." STENT POTENTIAL J&J is the No. 2 player in drug-eluting stents, which prop open diseased heart arteries and deliver drugs to prevent the buildup of scar tissue. Guidant, once the leader in the stent market with its conventional bare-metal stents, has quickly lost share to the more effective drug-coated versions and is not expected to have its own drug-coated stent on the U.S. market until 2007. Continued ... Source: reuters.comFor more information about conventional loan: mortgage news and links
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