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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Boston Scientific Corp. is acquiring Rubicon Medical Corp. in a deal worth more than $155 million, the companies said.
Natick, Mass.-based Boston Scientific has exercised a 2003 option to buy the West Valley City company, the companies said Thursday.
Rubicon makes the Rubicon Filter, a device that screens clots and other blood-borne debris from veins and arteries.
The device has yet to be approved for sale in the United States, but Rubicon announced on Thursday that the filter has been approved for use in Europe.
"This is a really big day for Rubicon," said Richard Linder, the company's founder, president and chief executive. "When we started, we were that little company that could. Now we have sold the company for well over $150 million, and we're thrilled our shareholders, who believed in us from the start, will reap the benefits."
Paul LaViolette, Boston Scientific's chief operating officer, said, "The Rubicon Filter is a potential paradigm-shifting technology due to its low profile and ease of use. We look forward to marketing and selling (it)."
Linder said that on Wednesday Boston Scientific bought out his holdings and those Rubicon Chairman David Berger. That amounted to nearly 54 percent of the company's stock.
Boston Scientific now will make a cash tender offer for the remaining stock at $1.50 per share.
Boston Scientific will pay about $71.7 million up front. The rest of the money, $83.7 million, is to come in additional earn-out payments, dependent on the reaching of various production and performance milestones.
Linder, who is to remain as the top executive of the new Boston Scientific subsidiary, said his Utah work force of 60 will survive and likely grow in the near future.
He said the goal is to double production by August and triple it by the first quarter of 2006.
Boston Scientific, a $5.6 billion revenue company at the end of 2004, employs more than 16,000 worldwide.
Rubicon stock closed Thursday at $1.78, up 27 cents, or 18 percent. Boston Scientific shares ended the day at $29.90 per share, down 30 cents.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
