Philips expands US healthcare holdings
Royal Philips Electronics, the Dutch-based lighting and medical equipment firm, has been on a US shopping spree, funded by the triumphant euro. It has announced three strategic buys of US companies in the medical technology field over the last month.
The main buy is Respironics, a maker of respiration and sleep therapy equipment. The cash deal is for $5.2 billion. Respironics products are especially popular for home healthcare, an area where Philips is already strong.
Philips also bought U.S. clinical information-technology and service provider Visicu for $425 million. Visicu software is used to monitor the vital signs of critical-care hospital patients. Remote monitoring is becoming more critical as hospitals attempts to save on personnel costs. Philips is already the world's #1 company in medical monitoring equipment.
Philips also bought Emergin, a company that sells software to rapidly transmit medical alarm signals throughout hospitals. No price has been announced.
None of these buys are dependent on outside financing, as Philips has the cash in hand to make the deals, thanks to recent divestments of non-core operations. Philips, according to Bloomberg News, has spent almost $30 billion. It also another step in the continual consolidation of medical equipment industry by three companies: GE, Philips, and Siemens.
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