Heart device maker Guidant has agreed to be bought by Boston Scientific for $80 per share, or about $27 billion, and terminated an agreement to be acquired by Johnson & Johnson.
J&J, which had been offering to buy Guidant for $71 a share, said in a statement that "it had determined not to increase its last offer for Guidant Corp., because to do so would not have been in the best interest of its shareholders."
J&J let a midnight deadline expire without responding to Boston Scientific's rival bid. The agreement is the latest turn in J&J's 14-month attempt to take control of Guidant, a maker of implantable heart defibrillators and products used in angioplasty.
Boston Scientific on January 17th raised its bid for Guidant to about $27 billion, above J&J's sweetened bid of about $24 billion.
As part of the deal, Boston Scientific entered into an agreement with Abbott Laboratories under which Boston Scientific agreed to divest Guidant's vascular intervention and endovascular businesses, while also agreeing to share rights to Guidant's drug-eluting stent program.