The notion that cardiovascular device companies, historically among the most fragmented and niche-oriented in the device industry, would begin to build broad franchises would have been unthinkable. From a technological and customer point of view, what did a pacemaker company have in common with an angioplasty company when you looked closely?
Even today there are skeptics who doubt that any real synergies are created by building such franchises—different cardiovascular therapies have...