The merger of two leading diagnostic suppliers has created a national presence in the troubled diagnostic imaging distribution segment. Platinium Equities paid $250 million to buy the dx imaging distribution businesses of Philips Medical and PSS, but even at that cheap price, the road to success is fraught with obstacles. Notably, the imaging film segment is under considerable competitive pressure from the increasing popularity of PACS.
If you want a sense of how depressed valuations have become in the low-margin world of diagnostic imaging supply distribution, just consider this: if you were interested, you could have purchased $1.25 billion in annual sales and a dominant market share position for around $250 million.
That is the coup pulled off by Platinum Equity LLC, a privately held buyout firm with holdings generating more than...