ARTICLE SUMMARY:
Part I of our annual year-in-review analyzes M&A activity in 2014 and whether these big deals reflect a trend towards industry consolidation, while also looking at some technology winners and losers.
It’s hard to look back at 2014 in the medical device industry and not have all other events obscured by the sheer size of the three biggest acquisitions: Medtronic/Covidien ($43 billion), Zimmer/Biomet ($13.5 billion), and Becton Dickinson/Carefusion ($11 billion). In past years, each of the latter two would have constituted major news on their own. As a trio, they comprise a scope of dealmaking unprecedented in medtech.
