Looks like Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) was serious about selling its medical-imaging business. Just 12 days after announcing its restructuring plan, it announced that it had found a buyer and plans to close the deal by the end of next month.
The $525 million all-cash deal sends the business unit -- which had $658 million in sales in 2006 -- to the private equity firm Avista Capital Partners. Bristol doesn't break out the margins for the medical imaging group, but based on the low selling price in relation to the unit's sales, the net margins must be pretty low on the handful of cardiovascular imaging products the unit sells.
That, or Avista is getting the unit for a steal. Of course, the unit's biggest product, Cardiolite, loses patent protection next year, so that certainly affected the price that Bristol could fetch.
At any rate, medical imaging sales accounted for about 4% of the company's sales in 2006, so letting the unit go shouldn't change the top line much. The company plans to plow the proceeds back into clinical trials for its up-and-coming biologics.
Meanwhile, Avista has had a busy few days investing in the health-care industry. Just last week it agreed to purchase two of Boston Scientific's (NYSE: BSX) businesses.
I wouldn't be surprised if Bristol sells more business units, including its wound-care supplies company, ConvaTec, and its Mead Johnson nutritional business, to focus on its other operations. Two potential candidates to buy ConvaTec are Johnson & Johnson's (NYSE: JNJ) Ethicon, and Omrix Biopharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: OMRI) might be interested in buying a ready-made sales force rather than partnering with Ethicon, as it has in the past.
Whatever its next moves, it's clear from this sale that Bristol is serious about directing its operations toward its stated goal of becoming a "next-generation BioPharma company."
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