The Art of the Deal: Device M&A in Difficult Times

Advanced Medical Optics, Ablation Frontiers, Acclarent, CoreValve, Evalve, Visiogen.-no tip of the iceberg last year; they were just about the whole berg in medical device M&A. Starting with AMO last January and ending with Acclarent in December it would be easy to look at the series of impressive device acquisitions that took place last year and be lulled into the belief that 2009 was a banner year for medical device M&A. In fact, just the opposite was true: total deal values and numbers were at their lowest peak in more than half a decade. What does it take to get a company sold these days? To look more closely at the topic, we asked some folks who've recently been on either side of a deal to talk, not so much about the current state of deal-making, but about how successful deals come about in today's environment.