3. WSJ reports Stryker in talks to acquire Boston Scientific
In the biggest non-story of the quarter, and possibly the half, the Wall Street Journal reported that Kalamazoo, Mich.-based orthopedic company Stryker (NYSE:SYK) was looking to pick up Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) in a deal that would have created a company worth well over $110 billion.
Boston Scientific didn’t respond to the rumors, which the Wall Street Journal reported were from sources “familiar with the matter.” Analysts were quick to offer their take on the possible deal, though most seemed blindsided by the news. The share prices of the two companies became interesting to watch.
But the deal was not to be. Two days after the rumor emerged, Stryker broke with its usual “no comment” rule on possible acquisitions and dismissed the rumors with a statement that it was not in talks to acquire Boston Scientific.
It says something that there have been so many medtech mega-mergers in recent years — Medtronic and Covidien, Zimmer and Biomet, Abbott and St. Jude Medical, BD and C.R. Bard, to name a few — that a Stryker-Boston Sci merger seemed entirely normal.