00:00You've been covering this story from the very beginning of it. Talk to us about the idea behind this combination.
00:06Why this deal?
00:07So this is a strategic deal. Highly synergistic. Synthes has been trying to buy Unifers for a long time.
00:15It's the third Rodale, as they say. They've tried in 2022. They've tried again at the beginning of 2025.
00:22And they came out with a third offer in December, and it was $2.75 per share.
00:31And this time, third time, is a charm. It worked out. They announced the deal today.
00:38Synthes is a very large company, $80 billion market cap. Cap Unifers is a small arrival.
00:44$5.5 billion in value comes down to $155 billion in cash and the rest in stock.
00:54Shareholders are reacting positively to the announcement. The stock is up today.
00:59There's still a little bit of a spread on the deal right now because there could be a little bit
01:05of an antitrust risk here.
01:06I was going to say, this feels like something that would be conserving to have these two giants in the
01:10industry come together.
01:12Is there a big antitrust risk?
01:14There's quite a bit of overlap. If you think about the fact that the companies have expected synergies coming from
01:23the deal of $375 million, that's a lot.
01:27So we'll see how it shakes out.
01:29I mean, this administration has been quite benevolent to deals in general, even when there is antitrust risk.
01:36So it's all a matter of going through the work.
01:39I mean, the companies expect to close the deal by the end of this year.
01:44So that's a pretty optimistic expectation.
01:46The other point I would make on this deal that is quite interesting, there was an activist in Unifers.
01:52Engine has come out today in response to the announcement back in the deal.
01:57It was a dual class shared structure, so typically activists are not successful, but in this case it worked out.
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