FTC Clears Getinge's Datascope Deal,Requires Divestitures

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission Thursday approved Getinge AB's $865 million acquisition of rival Datascope Corp. (DSCP), but required Datascope to sell assets as a condition of government approval.

Sweden's Getinge, a medical-technology company, reached a settlement agreement with the FTC that requires Datascope to sell its line of endoscopic vessel harvesting products, used in coronary-bypass surgery to remove a vein from a patient's leg or arm.

Datascope has proposed selling those assets to Sorin Group USA and must do so within 10 days of the deal's completion..

David Wales, the chief competition enforcer at the FTC, said that without the divestitures, the Getinge-Datascope merger would have given the combined company a near-monopoly share of the market for those devices.

Getinge and Datascope said in a press release that they expect to close the merger on Friday.

   
-By Brent Kendall, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9222; [e-mail] 
 

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