Gendex finalizes Eureka X-ray Tube acquisition

Gendex continued its acquisition drive with the purchase of EurekaX-ray Tube from Siemens last month. The Des Plaines, IL, manufacturerof dental and medical x-ray systems paid $10.3 million for thebusiness, with $4 million of the price financed interest-freeby Siemens, said Edwin J. McDonough, president and COO.

"We think we bought it quite favorably," McDonoughtold SCAN.

Gendex is the leading U.S. supplier of dental x-ray equipment,with a market share over 50%. The firm was started with the acquisitionof GE's dental x-ray business in 1983. It purchased medical x-raymanufacturer Universal/Allied Imaging in 1988. Most recently,Gendex bought the dental x-ray business of Philips late last year(SCAN 1/29/92).

Siemens put Eureka up for sale because the giant German medicalimaging vendor had too many plants. Siemens had purchased an x-raytube manufacturing facility in the former East Germany that thecompany owned prior to World War II, McDonough said.

"They found themselves then with three tube manufacturingfacilities, two in Germany, and Eureka in the U.S.," he said.

Eureka has five different product lines: rotating-anode x-raytubes, stationary-anode tubes, collimators, spot-film devicesand high-voltage cables. Current management will remain in place,and Eureka will continue to be run as an independent business,McDonough said.

Gendex will also maintain the Eureka name, which was establishedwhen the company was founded in 1919. Siemens purchased Eurekain 1988. The firm has about 200 employees and $25 million to $26million in annual revenue, he said.

"It's a good old-line company. We viewed it as a strategicacquisition that will allow us to sell more products through oursame distribution network," McDonough said.