How to Keep a Big Integration on Track

MD+DI has covered a significant amount number of acquisitions over the past couple of years, but a big part of M&A – and one that is perhaps not talked about often enough – is integration. What happens after you close on that multimillion or multibillion deal? It's a topic that came up during Stryker's second-quarter earnings call. Kevin Lobo mentioned during the call that the company has made considerable progress in the integration of K2M,  and that Stryker is on track with its full-year growth target for the spine business. That's great news for Stryker, but it's not always the way things go after a large acquisition. "We've seen so many integrations go by the wayside and have issues early on," said Robbie Marcus, a J.P. Morgan analyst, during the Q&A portion of Stryker's call. "What is it exactly that you're doing differently? What have you learned that [has resulted in] this integration going according to plan?" Katherine Owen, Stryker’s VP of strategy and investor relations, attributed the successful K2M integration to several factors. "We spent an enormous amount of time evaluating the market, the targets prior to making the decision to acquire K2M," Owen said. "We knew we had a strong cultural fit. We did a lot of due diligence around why prior deals didn't work, and we also have been a very acquisiti...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Business Source Type: news