Medtronic Puts Its Muscle Behind AEDs
Executive Summary
Medtronic is buying Physio-Control International, the leading maker of external defibrillators for hospital and out-of hospital applications. The big attraction for Medtronic is Physio-Control's automatic external defibrillators, which are simple-to-use external defibrillators, designed to allow minimally trained or untrained peole to provide quick help to victims of sudden cardiac death. Medtronic wants to increase the extremely low survival rate of SCD victims because they can then become candidates for Medtronic's implantable defibrillators. Physio Control on the other hand, while the market leader in this field, needs Medtronic's resources and access to cardiologists in order to quicken the pace of the market development in this field. Moreover, Physio-Control, while successful, is a narrowly focused company, which has made its stock more volatile than is warranted.