Frans van Houten was taking a peek into the future two and a half years ago when Philips Healthcare brought Volcano Corp. into the fold. "An important milestone in our strategy to become the leading systems integrator in the fast-growing image-guided minimally invasive surgery market," is how the group CEO described the deal that was completed in February 2015.
In June 2017, he took another step toward that aim in agreeing to buy US vascular interventions and cardiac solutions company Spectranetics Corp. (Colorado Springs, CO) for €1.9 billion...