A general view shows Swiss medical devices maker Synthes' headquarters in Oberdorf, April 25, 2011. Reuters/Christian Hartmann
Johnson & Johnson is to buy Swiss medical devices maker Synthes for $21.6 billion in its largest ever buy, giving J&J a leading position in equipment to treat trauma. Synthes, which posted sales of $3.7 billion in 2010, makes nails, screws and plates to fix broken bones, as well as artificial spine discs. “It is surprising the deal has been struck between cash and shares. The market consensus, and our view, was it would be all cash, so the quality of the take-out is slightly lower than we anticipated,” said Morgan Stanley analyst Michael Jungling.
Phone company CenturyLink is to buy Savvis for about $2.5 billion in cash and stock to beef up its data center business as it looks to meet the growing demand for cloud-based services. The deal comes at a time when regional phone companies like CenturyLink, which acquired rival Qwest for $10.6 billion last year, are looking at ways to boost their business as consumers continue to disconnect their home phones in favor of Internet services and cellphones.
News Corp is expected to receive around 5 or more bids by the end of this week to buy all or part of MySpace, valuing the one-time social networking pioneer at more than $100 million, a source said.
Reputation is dead on Wall Street and a long list of traders responsible for disastrous mortgage bets who have easily found high paying jobs in finance is evidence, writes The New York Times’s Steven Davidoff. And financial clients are not avoiding doing business with banks that were skewered in Congress, including Goldman Sachs, which has been attacked for purportedly taking short positions against its own clients, adds Davidoff.
