Abbott Labs Agrees To Buy St. Jude Medical In Deal Valued At $25 Billion

Abbott Laboratories said Thursday it has agreed to acquire medical device maker St. Jude Medical Inc. in a deal with an equity value of $25 billion. Abbott will pay $46.75 in cash and 0.8708 of its own stock for each St. Jude share, or a total consideration of about $85 a share. "The combined company will have an industry-leading pipeline expected to deliver a steady stream of new medical device products across cardiovascular, diabetes, vision and neuromodulation patient care," the companies said in a statement. Abbott is expecting the deal to boost adjusted EPS in the first full year after closing and to add about 21 cents to EPS in 2018 and 29 cents in 2018. The combination is expected to result in annual pretax synergies of $500 million a year by 2020. Abbott expects to issue $3 billion of stock to rebalance its capital structure. St. Jude shares were up 28.2% in premarket trade, while Abbott shares were down 4.2%.