Stryker closes Invuity acquisition
Stryker closes Invuity acquisition

Medical device maker Stryker announced Tuesday it has completed its acquisition of Invuity, an advanced photonics and surgical lighting company. The deal closed at $189.6 million. As a result of the merger, Invuity will cease to be publicly traded on the Nasdaq and will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Stryker, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission document. Stryker said in a press release that the deal is expected to be immaterial to its net earnings during 2018.

CEO Kevin Lobo said during Stryker's Q2 earnings call that the company's first priority for its capital allocation is M&A, ahead of its second and third priorities of dividends and share buybacks. "There's no change to our M&A strategy," Katherine Owen, Stryker VP of strategy and investor relations said on the July call. "We're going to focus on those adjacent and core markets. We think that really enables us to leverage our sales and marketing infrastructure." In August, Invuity announced that its Q2 revenue grew 7.5% to $10.5 million compared to the prior year. In a press release, interim CEO Scott Flora said that Invuity would be focusing on doubling its revenue over the next three years, but the merger with Stryker will almost certainly accelerate those plans. Flora called out "a lack of strategic organizational alignment in our sales and marketing efforts" during Invuity's Q2 earnings call, something that Stryker may be well positioned to help fix. The closing of the deal comes shortly after Stryker re-filed its premerger notification for its proposed merger with K2M Group Holdings with the Federal Trade Commission to allow for more time for it to be reviewed. K2M announced Monday that it reached an agreement with plaintiffs in two lawsuits to "make certain supplemental disclosures." The plaintiffs agreed to voluntarily dismiss their suits, according to an 8-K filed with the SEC.

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