The major acquisition will be followed by a company split – the Danaher name will stay with the business that includes diagnostics and dental segments, and a second, more industrial-focused company will be formed by the end of 2016.

Healthy market growth, the biggest ever M&A deal, a record number of billion-dollar takeovers, and the IPO market in impressive bounce-back…2014 was a year of superlatives for the global medtech industry. But with more expected of manufacturers while health care spending remains in the doldrums and demand for care rises, the long-term medtech winners will be those who can forecast how and where to make an impact on both costs and patient outcomes.

Medtech manufacturers saw 2014 as the year of the medtech mega-merger and a rebound in IPOs. But the market is changing, and companies are increasingly cast as service providers who must deliver value.

Device financing decreased to $734 million in Q3, less than half the Q2 total, and the $4.9 billion in M&As was a sharp decline versus Q2. Diagnostics fundraising, at $399 million, showed a 31% drop from Q2, and Merck KGAA’s $16.7 billion buy of Sigma-Aldrich made up 96% of the Q3 M&A activity.