• Abbott (Abbott Park, Illinois) has agreed to buy Evalve (Menlo Park, California), a company that makes devices for minimally invasive repair of cardiac mitral valves, for up to $410 million. Abbott says the acquisition gives it a presence in the growing area of non-surgical treatment for structural heart disease. The agreement includes an upfront payment of $320 million in cash, plus an additional payment upon completion of certain regulatory milestones.

• Alcon (Huenenberg, Switzerland) said it has agreed to acquire ESBATech (Zurich, Switzerland), a Swiss biotechnology company. Alcon will pay ESBATech shareholders $150 million in cash at closing, plus contingent payments of up to $439 million based upon the achievement of future research and development milestones that would be expected to create value for Alcon. ESBATech is a clinical-stage company that has been developing a pipeline of single-chain antibody fragment therapeutics for topical and local delivery for safe and convenient therapy. The agreement to acquire ESBATech includes all rights to its technology for therapeutic application to the eye, including age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, glaucoma, dry eye and uveitis. The rights to the technology and products for application outside of ophthalmology will be retained by the previous shareholders of ESBATech and spun off into a separate new company, Delenex Therapeutics.

• Covidien (Mansfield, Massachusetts), a provider of healthcare products, reported that it has completed the previously disclosed acquisition of Power Medical Interventions (PMI; Langhorne, Pennsylvania) for an aggregate consideration of nearly $65 million, including assumption of debt. All shares that were validly tendered and not withdrawn were accepted for purchase and paid for in accordance with the tender offer. An additional 247,765 shares, or about 1.4% of the outstanding PMI shares, had been tendered pursuant to notices of guaranteed delivery.

• Danaher (Washington) said Wednesday it has agreed to acquire both halves of a mass spectrometry joint venture in two separate deals for a combined total of $1.1 billion. In one transaction, Danaher has agreed to pay $650 million for the Analytical Technologies division of MDS (Toronto), which includes a 50% ownership position in Applied Biosystems/MDS Sciex joint venture (AB Sciex; Concord, Ontario), a mass spectrometry business, and a 100% ownership position in the former Molecular Devices Corp., a bioresearch and analytical instrumentation company. In a separate but related transaction, Danaher also agreed to buy the remaining 50% ownership position in AB Sciex from Life Technologies (Carlsbad, California) for $450 million in cash. The purchase price for the combined transactions is $1.1 billion, including debt assumed and net of cash acquired, Danaher said. Danaher said the acquired businesses will operate with its Medical technologies segment, joining its Leica, Radiometer, Sybron, and KaVo businesses, and will expand the segment's annual revenues by more than $650 million.

• Software maker Merge Healthcare (Milwaukee) said it has completed its acquisition of Confirma (Seattle) in a stock transaction first disclosed last month. The total value of the deal is estimated to be $22 million. Merge said that with the completion of the acquisition it has "enhanced its medical imaging capabilities to become a market leader in MRI computer-aided detection (CAD) applications." Confirma will be renamed Merge CAD and operated as a business unit of Merge.

• Natus Medical (San Carlos, California) said it has agreed to acquire Alpine Biomed Holdings (Fountain Valley, California). Alpine makes devices for the diagnosis of neurological disorders. Its products include advanced electromyography systems for the diagnoses of peripheral nervous system dysfunctions as well as devices for routine EEG and long term epilepsy monitoring. Water Street Healthcare Partners, a private equity firm focused exclusively on the healthcare industry, was the majority stockholder of Alpine. Natus acquired all outstanding shares of Alpine Biomed capital stock for $43.2 million in cash, exclusive of direct costs of the acquisition. Natus said it funded the acquisition through available cash.

• PerkinElmer (Waltham, Massachusetts) reported it has completed the acquisition of SYM-BIO Lifescience (Shanghai) a provider of diagnostics instruments and related reagents, in a cash transaction valued at about $63.7 million. The addition of SYM-BIO's infectious disease products also complements PerkinElmer's worldwide position in prenatal and neonatal screening, providing a new line of diagnostics for expansion of the company's regional and global offerings.

• Syneron Medical (Yokneam, Israel) and Candela (Wayland, Massachusetts) reported that they have entered into a definitive agreement to combine the companies in an all stock transaction. This strategic combination, unanimously approved by the boards of both companies, will create a global leader in medical aesthetic devices. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Candela shareholders will receive 0.2911 ordinary shares of Syneron for each share of Candela common stock they own. Based upon the closing stock price of Syneron common stock on Sept. 8, 2009, this represents $2.84 per share of consideration to be received by Candela shareholders, or a total consideration of nearly $65 million.