Bye-Bye Interpore Cross
BY ROBIN R. YOUNG CFA, MARCH 8, 2004
The last remaining, full line public spinal implant company is gone. This morning Biomet agreed to pay $280 million or 3.6x 2004 revenues (36x expected 2004 EBITDA) for Interpore Cross. This transaction, assuming it is completed, will vault Biomet into 4th place in the spinal implant industry. The most compelling aspect of this agreement will be the extremely complementary effect of Biomet's 400 person sales force with Interpore's creative design team. Alone, Interpore was expected (by us) to generate between $90-95 million in sales for 2004. Under Biomet, the number moves up probably 10-20% this year and much more, we'd expect, in the out years.
Every year there seems to be one major M&A announcement at AAOS. And this year is no exception.
