Tyco Takes a Huge Step Forward with US Surgical Acquisition

With this deal, Tyco significantly enhances the product expansion it began on behalf of its Kendall medical products business when it purchased American Home Products' medical device businesses several months ago. The addition of US Surgical now makes Kendall a strong competitor to chief rival Johnson & Johnson with important brands in surgical staplers and electrosurgical equipment, and high tech businesses in cardiovascular and gynecology.

This deal can hardly be called a surprise. During the time American Home Products Corp. was shopping its Sherwood/Davis & Geck medical device businesses, two companies were mentioned prominently— Kendall International Inc. , a subsidiary of Tyco International Ltd. , and United States Surgical Corp., each of which would use different components of Sherwood-Davis & Geck to mount a more significant challenge to rival Johnson & Johnson . (Kendall saw in Sherwood a way to give additional ballast to its wound care line with a host of other, related surgical product lines; US Surgical would use Davis & Geck as a way to jump start its struggling suture effort.)

In fact, when Tyco bought Sherwood-Davis & Geck [See Deal]. The deal represents a major commitment by Tyco to...

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