February 19, 2015
By Jessica Wilson, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Integra LifeSciences , the Plainsboro, N.J.-based medical device maker, axed 49 jobs at its Massachusetts facilities in late 2014, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed by the company.
The employees lost their jobs between Dec. 5 and Dec. 31, 2014, reports MassDevice, a website that provides news about the medical device industry. MassDevice noted that private companies must provide a WARN notice 60-days before a plant closure or massive layoff.
The layoffs came in the wake of three key decisions Integra undertook in the fall and winter of 2014. The first decision was announced in September 2014, when Integra said it would acquire Medtronic, Inc. ‘s MicroFrance and Xomed Manual ENT and Laparoscopy Instrumentation Lines for $60 million in cash. Under the terms of the agreement, Integra acquired a portfolio of approximately 4,000 surgical instruments, as well as the St. Aubin le Monial, France manufacturing facility that makes the products.
The second decision, announced in November 2014, was Integra’s spinoff of a new publicly traded company, called SeaSpine, to focus on developing, marketing and selling spine hardware and orthobiologics. Integra said that it would continue to provide specialty surgical solutions, orthopedics and tissue technologies to surgeons.
The third decision, announced in January 2015, but executed in December 2014, was Integra’s purchase of Metasurg’s foot and ankle product portfolio. Integra did not release the financial terms of the deal, but did state that the revenues for Metasurg’s foot and ankle product portfolio were approximately six million dollars in 2013, with double-digit growth over the prior year.
At the time of the announcement, Integra indicated that it “expects minimal impact [from the acquisition] on profits in 2015 and slower growth during the transition period, before returning to double digit growth longer term.”
In the company’s U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s 2014 10-K filing, the company explained its strategy in broad strokes. Integra acknowledged the rising costs of operating a medical technology company and pointed out that scale defrays these costs. This statement would explain the acquisition of the Medtronic lines.
The company stated, however, “Our operating footprint is more complex and less efficient than it can be, in part because we have not taken full advantage of the more than 40 acquisitions in our history.” The company said it would take steps to “simplify…structure and processes into singular, common systems in order to continue to add scale efficiently and profitably.”
BioSpace Temperature Poll
Will Job Cuts Continue? After a week that saw Quintiles, Sanofi and Actavis slashing almost a 1,000 biotech jobs, BioSpace wonders if the ax will continue to fall. Give us your thoughts about the sector’s “streamlining” below.
