Nearly 10 months after the acquisition bid was announced, GE Medical Systems has completed its purchase of Instrumentarium. The two companies said that as a combined entity they would offer a range of medical imaging, patient monitoring, anesthesia delivery, critical care, and information systems.
Helsinki, Finland-based Instrumentarium will serve as the European headquarters for GE Medical Systems Information Technologies, according to GE of Waukesha, WI. Instrumentarium will provide GE with advanced research and development and manufacturing, among other focus areas, GE said.
GE will continue to sell all of Instrumentarium’s commercially available mammography systems, GE spokesperson Jennifer Christiansen told AuntMinnie.com. The combined firms’ new mammography portfolio will now include:
- Senographe 2000D
- Diamond
- Senographe DMR+
- Performa
- Senographe 800T
- Alpha
Instrumentarium had also been developing a full-field digital mammography (FFDM) system, an amorphous selenium-based unit called Diamond DX. While some elements of that program will be continued, GE believes that amorphous silicon-based detectors (used in Senographe 2000D and other GE digital x-ray systems) offer the best digital approach, and the vendor will stick with amorphous silicon-based technology going forward, Christiansen said.
GE operations in Buc, France, will remain the global headquarters for GE’s mammography business, while Instrumentarium’s Finland operations will play an important role in GE’s growth strategy in mammography and dental imaging, she said.
Instrumentarium will serve as a GE imaging technology center of excellence, and will work on developing new products and advanced applications in mammography and other x-ray modalities, Christiansen said.
At the 2003 European Congress of Radiology, Instrumentarium debuted Shuttle, a portable digital radiography system employing an amorphous silicon flat-panel detector developed by Canon Medical Systems of Japan. GE said there are no changes in the relationship with Canon at this time.
The closing of the deal ends a long regulatory odyssey for the companies. The U.S. Department of Justice signed off on the deal last month, although it required GE to divest Instrumentarium’s Ziehm mobile C-arm business as well as its Spacelabs patient-monitoring unit. The European Commission approved the deal in early September, requiring only that GE divest the Spacelabs business.
By Erik L. Ridley
AuntMinnie.com staff writer
October 9, 2003
Related Reading
U.S. approves GE’s purchase of Instrumentarium, September 17, 2003
EC greenlights GE-Instrumentarium deal, September 3, 2003
GE extends Instrumentarium offer, August 28, 2003
Instrumentarium Imaging sales dip, July 23, 2003
GE, EC continue talks over Instrumentarium deal, July 7, 2003
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