Boston Scientific Rebuffed? on Guidant

Boston Scientific’s offer of a $3.4B premium to buy Guidant over J&J’s offer was initially rebuffed today by Guidant, who signalled that it was opting to stick with the newly reworked $21B+ deal with J&J. Boston Scientific clearly recognized the market value of picking up Guidant (at J&J’s expense), even with the stent divestitures that would have been mandated. Guidant shareholders will vote on the deal in 1Q 2006.

(It appears likely, however, that Guidant may well consider the Boston Scientific offer. An additional $3.4 billion should more than cover the legal costs of getting out of the J&J deal (!).)

Boston Scientific and J&J remain in a pitched battle over share in the drug eluting stents sector, which will be joined in the next 1-2 years by not only Guidant, but Medtronic, Abbott and a healthy list of others.