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Philips to buy U.S. IT company Visicu for $430 Mn
By siliconindia
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Thursday, 20 December 2007, 02:04 IST
Amsterdam: With a view to boost its medical products business, Philips Electronics is buying a U.S. based IT and service provider, Visicu, for about $430 million, or $12 per share, the company said. Excluding $130 million in cash on Visicu?s balance sheet, Philips said its cash offer represents an enterprise value of $300 million for Baltimore based Visicu.
Philips, the world?s biggest lighting maker, a top three hospital equipment maker and Europe's biggest consumer electronics producer, said it expects to close the deal in the first quarter of the year 2008.
"Making these investments, we believe, will drive further growth in our patient monitoring business," said Steve Rusckowski, Chief Executive of Philips Healthcare. Visicu?s board of directors is backing the offer, Philips said. Philips has said it aims to strengthen its medical systems unit via acquisitions. In October, it warned the division would likely miss 2007 targets due to a U.S. regulatory change.
The unit, which competes with GE Healthcare and Siemens Medical Solutions, is key to Philip's strategy of becoming a higher margin company. Visicu, a maker of systems that tracks patients' conditions in intensive care units, made $30.2 million in revenue last year, up 65 percent from 2005.