Once the very model of stability among orthopedics companies, Biomet went through a rocky period a while ago as its stock price tanked and its long time CEO left the company. To the rescue has come a group of private equity investors who will take the company private when the transaction closes later this year. Biomet officials insist the company's turnaround will be based on the same success factors that made the company successful in the past: product innovation, strong distributor relationships, and close customer ties. But the question is: what changes, if any, will Biomet's new owners bring?

A $10.9 billion bid by a consortium of private equity investors to buy Biomet raises questions about whether this is the first of many such deals or an outlier.

In the US acceptance of dynamic stabilization devices (DYNs) has been strong owing to the compelling advantages of DYNs over artificial discs, including that they can be implanted from a posterior route, do not violate the disc space and the procedure is reversible. Rather being an alternative to fusion, artificial discs will likely compete with DYNs.