Intermagnetics bids for Invivo

In an effort to broaden its line of MR products, Intermagnetics General has launched a hostile bid for a developer of vital signs monitors. The Latham, NY-based company, best known in the imaging industry for supplying superconducting magnets to Philips Medical Systems, has offered $140 million in cash and stock, $19 for each share of Invivo. The bid, which includes $15 cash per share, represents a 20% premium over the stock's 50-day moving average and 14% above the closing price of the stock Nov. 3, when the offer was publicly announced. Executives at Invivo, a market leader in patient monitors designed for use in the very high magnetic fields, have rebuffed previous overtures from Intermagnetics to discuss a buyout.

"We are disappointed that they have repeatedly failed to respond meaningfully to our overtures," said Glenn H. Epstein, chairman and CEO of Intermagnetics. "Because this is a transaction that provides Invivo's stockholders with an opportunity to realize immediate financial gain and liquidity, we believe we had no alternative but to make our proposal public."

Intermagnetics is attracted not only to Invivo's products, which would complement its own, but also to its diversified customer base. The company plans to leverage global sales and service channels that Invivo uses to sell monitors to boost its own MR coil business. Company executives estimate that the effect on earnings of a merger would be slightly accretive within the current fiscal year, ending May 2004, and substantially accretive during fiscal 2005 following a full year's contribution of earnings.