Philips to Acquire Cardiovascular-Imaging Firm

Royal Philips said Wednesday it will buy Volcano Corp. for a total of $1.2 billion, including all of Volcano's equity as well as its cash and debt. The 1,800 employees of Volcano will become part of a new image-guided therapy group within Philips.

According to a statement released by both parties, Volcano is a market leader in making flexible tubes that can produce ultrasound images of blood vessels as well as consoles to measure blood flow. Its broad range of products aims to treat cardiovascular diseases in less invasive ways. Based in San Diego, California, it had sales of US$400 million in 2013.

Volcano's strength in tools bolsters Philips' presence in imaging therapy, an area it has sought to expand into over the past few years. One-third of all interventional X-ray systems sold in the world are Philips models.

Philips' CEO Frans van Houten describes Volcano's products as "highly complementary to our strong offering in live image-guidance solutions," adding that the merger will create "an opportunity to accelerate the revenue growth for our image-guided therapy business."

The image-therapy market is worth roughly 4 billion euros.

Write to Anjie Zheng at [e-mail]

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