It was a steal. Maybe not on par with the accomplishments of Ty Cobb or the exploits of John Dillinger, but a steal nonetheless.
Johnson & Johnson
The health-care giant already sells Omrix's two products designed to stop bleeding during surgery. Evicel, its fibrin sealant, has been selling well, while Evithrom has run into competition in the battle of the thrombins from King Pharmaceuticals
After subtracting the roughly $80 million in cash and investments that Omrix has, Johnson & Johnson is getting those assets for a little less than $360 million. For a company that logged $79 million in revenue in the trailing 12 months -- a 33% increase over the previous year -- that sounds like a pretty good bargain to me. It's slightly below where Omrix was when Motley Fool Rule Breakers analyst Karl Thiel recommended it to newsletter subscribers a couple of years ago.
Which company could be snatched up next? Your guess is as good as mine, but there are certainly several candidates to choose from. King announced today that it is buying Alpharma
Johnson & Johnson's purchase of Omrix may have been one of the first steals of the health-care bear market, but I doubt it'll be the last. Pharmaceutical companies (and investors) with cash on their books should be able to find plenty of deals in this market.