Boston Scientific
Last year, Boston Scientific took a whopping $2.7 billion goodwill writedown because it had to downgrade the value of what it got in acquiring Guidant. Now it's taking a measly $296 million charge to settle a dispute with the Department of Justice for failing to include information about three of Guidant's heart devices in reports to the Food and Drug Administration. The company also pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors in connection with the case.
However, the reports to the FDA happened the year before Boston Scientific bought Guidant. And the company already paid $240 million to settle lawsuits filed by patients claiming that Guidant knew about defects in its defibrillators. Johnson & Johnson
The nearly $300 million fine could have been worse, I guess. Pfizer
Even though the Guidant acquisition has been plagued by more than its share of heart-wrenching issues, investors may have more joy in their hearts than heartache in their future. The heart-rhythm devices acquired from Guidant should get a boost from a recent study, and its Promus drug-eluting stent is doing well. That stent is made by Abbott Labs
With any luck, it's done sending that revenue out the one-time-charges door.