Medtronic/Kyphon merger clears FTC

Medtronic's pending $3.9 billion acquisition of spinal device maker Kyphon clears Federal Trade Commission antitrust review, the firms announce Sept. 11. Inked in July, the merger deal will expand Medtronic's spinal business, adding Kyphon's flagship KyphX balloon kyphoplasty system for spinal compression fractures. However, a proposed consent decree is still pending with FTC related to Kyphon's earlier $220 million proposed deal to purchase Disc-O-Tech spine technology, which likely will require Kyphon's divestiture of "most, and potentially all," of the assets related to Disc-O-Tech's Confidence cement delivery system for vertebral compression fractures, Kyphon notes. Kyphon shareholders will meet Oct. 16 to vote on the proposed Medtronic merger, which also remains subject to antitrust review outside the United States and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008 (1"The Gray Sheet" July 30, 2007, p. 3)