European Company Buys Intermedics Inc.

Abstract

This chapter describes the dismemberment in 1998 of Intermedics and what remained intact. The total price was $800 million US dollars. The negotiation was held confidential. I was kept in the dark until the deal was done. It was rumored that 50% of the price was for the CarboMedics group that included a dental company and an orthopedics company. The remainder was for the pacemaker company and all other assets. Intermedics, Inc.’s price for the Medical Products Division of General Atomic was six million dollars plus some Intermedics, Inc. common stock. The five management team members had signed employment agreements that expired in 1988; so did the patents that protected the carbon technology. The autonomous subsidiary, CarboMedics, Inc., and its two associate entities stayed intact. After the sale, GR Chambers approached me with an offer of five million dollars as a start for a new venture. I thanked him, telling him I’d get back. The orthopedic company management became uneasy so in 1992 elected to leave and start a new company, Encore, Inc. Unfinished projects became orphans. At this point, Robert Akins, a most valuable employee, retired, transferring the “baton” to Jonathan Stupka, ready to step into Akins’s shoes. During the lull after the sale, my colleagues and I wrote two chapters for a book edited by Endre Bodnar and Robert Frater.