WARSAW, Ind., Oct. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Zimmer Holdings, Inc. announced today that its acquisition of Abbott Spine has been completed. Zimmer paid $360 million in cash in the transaction.
"It is a pleasure to welcome Abbott Spine employees and customers to the Zimmer family and we look forward to building toward critical mass with our expanded Zimmer Spine business," said David Dvorak, Zimmer President and CEO. "We have appreciated the engagement of the Abbott Spine management team as we have been able to move ahead briskly with our integration planning. We are excited to now work together to execute those plans and begin to take advantage of the great potential and strategic opportunity represented by this combination."
Abbott Spine was founded in 1996 and has U.S. headquarters in Austin, Texas, and an international facility in Bordeaux, France. Throughout its history, Abbott Spine has developed a series of innovative technologies and techniques to treat spine disease. Among the key products are the InCompass(R) Pedicle Screw System; the Pathfinder(R) Minimally Invasive Pedicle Screw system; the Wallis(R) Interspinous Stabilizer System (available outside the U.S.); the Ant-Cer(R) Dynamic Cervical Plate; and the Universal Clamp(R). Zimmer Spine, which is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, intends to maintain a presence at Abbott Spine's Austin and Bordeaux sites. Abbott Spine has approximately 300 employees worldwide.
About the Company
Founded in 1927 and headquartered in Warsaw, Indiana, Zimmer designs, develops, manufactures and markets orthopaedic reconstructive, spinal and trauma devices, dental implants, and related orthopaedic surgical products. Zimmer has operations in more than 25 countries around the world and sells products in more than 100 countries. Zimmer's 2007 sales were approximately $3.9 billion. The Company is supported by the efforts of approximately 8,500 employees worldwide.
Visit Zimmer on the worldwide web at www.zimmer.com
Zimmer Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the orthopaedics industry, management's beliefs and assumptions made by management. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terms such as "may," "will," "expects," "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "estimates," "projects," "assumes," "guides," "targets," "forecasts," and "seeks" or the negative of such terms or other variations on such terms or comparable terminology. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, our compliance with the Deferred Prosecution Agreement through March 2009 and the Corporate Integrity Agreement through 2012, the impact of our enhanced healthcare compliance global initiatives and business practices on our relationships with customers and consultants, our market share and our overall financial performance, the success of our quality initiatives, the outcome of the informal investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matters announced in October 2007, price and product competition, rapid technological development, demographic changes, dependence on new product development, the mix of our products and services, supply and prices of raw materials and products, customer demand for our products and services, control of costs and expenses, our ability to obtain and maintain adequate intellectual property protection, our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses, our ability to form and implement alliances, international growth, our compliance with governmental laws and regulations affecting our U.S. and international businesses including regulations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and foreign government regulators and tax obligations and risks, the impact of temporarily suspending U.S. distribution of one of our key hip replacement products, product liability and intellectual property litigation losses, reimbursement levels from third-party payors, cost-containment efforts of healthcare purchasing organizations, our ability to retain the independent agents and distributors who market our products, general industry and market conditions and growth rates and general domestic and international economic conditions including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations. For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see our periodic reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. We disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be set forth in our periodic reports. Readers of this document are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, since, while we believe the assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, there can be no assurance that these forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate. This cautionary statement is applicable to all forward-looking statements contained in this document.
CONTACT: Media, Brad Bishop, +1-574-372-4291, bradley.bishop@zimmer.com,
or Investors, Paul Blair, +1-574-371-8042, paul.blair@zimmer.com, James T.
Crines, +1-574-372-4264, james.crines@zimmer.com, all of Zimmer Holdings,
Inc.
Web site: http://www.zimmer.com/
