ABT News GE to Acquire Abbott's in vitro and Point-of-Care Diagnostics Businesses for $8.13 Billion, Broadening Capabilities in Growing Global Industry
FAIRFIELD, Conn. and ABBOTT PARK, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) and Abbott (NYSE: ABT), a global
leader in medical diagnostic instruments and tests, announced today that
they have entered into a definitive agreement for GE to acquire Abbott’s
primary in vitro diagnostics businesses and Abbott Point-of-Care
diagnostics business (formerly known as i-STAT) for $8.13 billion in
cash. Abbott’s Molecular Diagnostics and
Diabetes Care businesses are not part of the transaction and will remain
part of Abbott.
The addition of two of Abbott’s core
laboratory diagnostics businesses will broaden GE Healthcare’s
diagnostic offerings. Abbott’s in vitro
diagnostic (in vitro diagnostics test blood or urine samples to
diagnose disease or other conditions) complement GE’s
existing positions in in vivo diagnostic imaging systems (in
vivo imaging uses X-ray, magnetic resonance, ultrasound or other
imaging procedures to look at what is in the body to diagnose disease),
as well as its molecular imaging, information technology, and patient
monitoring capabilities across the complete healthcare continuum.
GE Chairman and CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt, said, “This
acquisition is consistent with GE’s strategy
to invest in high-technology global infrastructure businesses that
deliver strong top-line growth, earnings expansion and expanded margins.
Abbott’s diagnostics business is the premier
platform in this industry and fits very well with our Healthcare
strategy. Abbott’s global position in the
growing diagnostics field is aligned with our objective to deliver a
comprehensive array of diagnostic products to customers around the world.”
The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals and other
customary conditions, has been approved by the Boards of Directors of
Abbott and GE and is targeted to close in the first half of 2007.
The acquisition reflects GE Healthcare’s
strategy to combine early diagnosis with information technology to
enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis,
pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention.
Abbott’s in vitro diagnostics business
is a global leader with a strong tradition of developing first-of-a-kind
products that have helped create the modern diagnostics industry. Abbott
is a world leader in immunoassays and blood screening. Abbott’s
broad range of medical tests and diagnostic instrument systems are used
worldwide by hospitals, laboratories, blood banks, and physician offices
to diagnose and monitor diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, cancer, heart
failure and metabolic disorders, as well as assess other important
indicators of general health.
Abbott Point-of-Care manufactures diagnostic products for blood analysis
to provide health care professionals critical diagnostics information
accurately and immediately at the point of patient care. In addition to
its excellent offerings in the blood gas and chemistries segment, Abbott
also provides point-of-care cardiac assays to the emergency room.
Abbott’s in vitro diagnostics
business, including Point-of-Care, is expected to generate net sales of
approximately$2.7 billion in 2006.
Miles D. White, Abbott’s Chairman of the
Board and Chief Executive Officer, said, “The
laboratory diagnostics market has changed considerably in the last
decade. Innovation in this segment will be increasingly driven by
automation, system integration and a host of skills that GE can offer.
As part of GE, Abbott’s core diagnostics and
point-of-care businesses will be powerfully positioned to sustain and
extend their market success.”
For Abbott, the transaction is expected to be neutral to
earnings-per-share in 2007 before specified items and accretive
thereafter.
GE said the transaction will be accretive to earnings.
Joe Hogan, president and CEO of GE Healthcare, said, “Over
the last 5–to-10 years, we have been able to
drive organic growth as well as successfully integrate major
acquisitions like Amersham in a way beneficial to employees and
investors. Through this acquisition, we create the opportunity to
integrate our broad-based competencies in diagnostics, life sciences and
healthcare information technology. In-vitro diagnostics and in
vivo imaging continue to become more important in providing
comprehensive diagnostic solutions. Our capabilities combined with Abbott’s
in vitro diagnostics and point-of-care diagnostic businesses will allow
GE to provide customers with better tools for the full care continuum,
enhancing their decision-making capabilities in key disease areas such
as oncology and cardiology, and enabling early disease detection,
diagnosis and treatment. ”
GE will discuss this transaction as well as preliminary fourth-quarter
and full-year results on a conference call and webcast at 8:30 a.m. ET
on Friday, Jan. 19. Call information is available at www.ge.com/investor
and related charts will be posted there prior to the call.
About GE
GE is Imagination at Work -- a diversified technology, media and
financial services company focused on solving some of the world’s
toughest problems. With products and services ranging from aircraft
engines, power generation, water processing and security technology to
medical imaging, business and consumer financing, media content and
advanced materials, GE serves customers in more than 100 countries and
employs more than 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit
the company's Web site at www.ge.com.
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and
services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in
medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics,
patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and
biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians
around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform and
treat disease, so their patients can live their lives to the fullest.
GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare
providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease,
neurological diseases, and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the
future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on
earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease
prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $15
billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE
Healthcare employs more than 43,000 people committed to serving
healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries.
For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.
Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Results are preliminary and unaudited. This document contains
"forward-looking statements" - that is, statements related to future,
not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often
address our expected future business and financial performance, and
often contain words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends,"
"plans," "believes," "seeks," or "will." Forward-looking statements by
their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain.
For us, particular uncertainties which could adversely or positively
affect our future results include: the behavior of financial markets,
including fluctuations in interest rates and commodity prices; strategic
actions, including dispositions; future integration of acquired
businesses; future financial performance of major industries which we
serve, including, without limitation, the air and rail transportation,
energy generation, media, real estate and healthcare industries;
unanticipated loss development in our insurance businesses; and numerous
other matters of national, regional and global scale, including those of
a political, economic, business, competitive and regulatory nature.
These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially
different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do
not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.
About Abbott
Abbott is a global, broad-based health care company devoted to the
discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of pharmaceuticals and
medical products, including nutritionals, devices and diagnostics. The
company employs more than 65,000 people and markets its products in more
than 130 countries.
About Abbott Diagnostics
Abbott Diagnostics is a global leader in in vitro diagnostics.
With more than 69,000 institutional customers in more than 100
countries, Abbott’s diagnostic products offer
customers automation, convenience, cost effectiveness and flexibility.
Abbott’s core laboratory diagnostics business
products include: automated blood screening systems to detect infectious
agents such as HIV and strains of hepatitis in donated blood and plasma;
immunodiagnostics instruments and tests that measure antibody or antigen
reactions to detect disease; clinical chemistry instruments and reagents
to measure and monitor glucose, electrolytes, enzymes, proteins and
lipids as indicators of patient health; hematology systems that perform
sophisticated blood cell analyses; and automation systems and software
solutions to help laboratories integrate equipment, reduce errors and
enhance productivity.
About Abbott Point of Care
Abbott Point of Care, headquartered in East Windsor, New Jersey,
develops, manufactures and markets critical medical diagnostic and data
management products for rapid blood analysis. The company's premier
product is the i-STAT System, a market-leading hand-held blood analyzer
used in emergency departments, surgical suites, neonatal intensive care
units and other critical care settings that is capable of performing a
panel of commonly ordered blood tests on two or three drops of blood at
the patient's bedside.
Utilizing 18 different self-contained test cartridges, the i-STAT System
delivers lab-accurate testing for blood gases, electrolytes,
chemistries, coagulation, hematology, glucose and cardiac markers in
just minutes. By providing these critical test results rapidly, health
care providers can quickly monitor and effectively manage their
patients' care.
Abbott's Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
A Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Some statements in this news release may be forward-looking statements
for the purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. We caution that these forward-looking statements are subject to
risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ
materially from those indicated. Economic, competitive, governmental,
technological and other factors that may affect Abbott's operations are
discussed in Item 1A, "Risk Factors," and Exhibit 99.1 to our Annual
Report on Securities and Exchange Commission Form 10-K for the year
ended Dec. 31, 2005 and in Item 1A, "Risk Factors," to our Quarterly
Report on Securities and Exchange Commission Form 10-Q for the period
ended March 31, 2006, and are incorporated by reference. We undertake no
obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking
statements as the result of subsequent events or developments.
