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January 17, 2006

Breaking News: Boston Scientific bids $80 per share
In my last post I said that Boston Scientific's bidding for Guidant was really a shared Boston-Abbott defensive move to prevent the giant Johnson & Johnson from getting Guidant and totally dominating the field, something you do in RISK -- get together with a partner to stop the elephant in the game.

Well, defensive turned seriously aggressive this morning with Boston Scientific offering a stunning $80 per share for Guidant with a "sell by 5:00pm" date stamped on the package. The deal includes a greater financial involvement from Abbott, higher price for the vascular business divisions, greater loan, and, new to this iteration, Abbott will now own 4% of the new combined company.

Last week I noted that Abbott used to own 20% of Boston Scientific. What goes around, etc. etc.

Update: Guidant's Board has deemed the Boston offer "superior", so they now have five days to decide whether to formally accept it. That means five days for Johnson & Johnson to up its offer, or give up the year-long acquisition process.

Stay tuned!

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