If CooperSurgical’s latest acquisition deal sparks a sense of déjà vu, it’s for good reason.
The fertility-focused medtech announced this week that it has picked up some of Cook Medical’s assets in the reproductive health space—just a few months after its previous plans to purchase a piece of Cook Medical fell through.
The new deal, which has already been sealed, saw CooperSurgical parent CooperCompanies shell out a total of $300 million: $200 million paid at the close of the deal plus another $100 million to be doled out in two annual $50 million installments.
In return, Connecticut-based CooperSurgical added several of Cook Medical’s obstetrics, Doppler monitoring and gynecology surgery products to its portfolio, including a handful of minimally invasive devices designed to help with labor preparation, postpartum healing and blood flow monitoring. Those products will be housed within CooperSurgical’s office and surgical division.
In total, the newly acquired assets brought in about $56 million in revenue for Cook Medical for the year that ended Sept. 30, according to Cooper’s release this week. The company is now expecting to see its own revenues from the transaction grow by between 5% and 7% during its fiscal year 2024, which began Nov. 1.
“This acquisition is a fantastic strategic fit for CooperSurgical,” Al White, president and CEO of its parent company, said in the announcement. “The acquired products are highly synergistic with CooperSurgical’s existing portfolio of medical devices and strengthen CooperSurgical’s position as a leading global fertility and women’s health company.”
The now-closed acquisition comes shortly after Cooper struggled to swallow up a much larger chunk of Cook Medical’s business.
In that case, Cooper announced at the start of 2022 that it was offering $875 million to take over Cook’s entire reproductive health portfolio, including a variety of fertility and in vitro fertilization assets that weren’t included in the revised transaction in addition to its OB-GYN products.
Similar to the more recent deal, this one also saw Cooper propose dividing up its payout, with $675 million paid upfront and the remaining $200 million meted out in $50 million yearly installments. The terms of the proposed buyout also included a two-year transition period that would commence after the deal closed, during which Cook’s subsidiaries would continue to manufacture the purchased products.
Alas, it never got that far, as CooperSurgical called off the deal just a few months ago amid concerns from antitrust regulators. In an early August release, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission called the deal’s cancellation “a win for patients,” one that “ensures that critical reproductive health markets remain competitive.”