•MicroMed Cardiovascular (Houston) is now a private company. The final step in the process was a reverse split of its common stock and a repurchase of fractional shares from the MicroMed shareholders holding smaller positions. At the time of the reverse split, E-Wilson (also Houston) had accumulated 97.5% of the outstanding MicroMed shares. The company said it received confirmation of the reverse split on Aug. 25, making E-Wilson the single shareholder of MicroMed. On Feb. 1, E-Wilson agreed to provide up to $10 million in financing in a series of advances over the next two years, subject to certain conditions. E-Wilson advanced $1 million to the company upon closing. In connection with the financing, the company issued an unsecured convertible note, under which E-Wilson had the option of converting the outstanding principal and interest due under the credit agreement into shares of the company's common stock at a conversion rate of $0.02 a share. The company agreed to seek stockholder approval of an amendment to its Certificate of Incorporation to increase the number of authorized shares of common stock from 100 million to 750 million shares. Unconverted amounts of principal accrue interest at a rate of 7.5% per annum and are required to be repaid over a 24-month period, beginning Feb. 28, 2011. On Feb. 20, E-Wilson converted a $1 million loan advanced Feb. 1 into MicroMed shares. The loan and accrued interest were exchanged for 50,205,500 MicroMed shares. Between Feb. 27 and April 28, E-Wilson bought the MicroMed shares held by several equity partners. Rodger Ford, shareholder and CEO of SynCardia Systems (Tucson, Arizona) and David Mackstaller, shareholder and VP-development of SynCardia, as a special purpose entity to own MicroMed shares, formed E-Wilson. MicroMed and SynCardia have some common shareholders, but are separate entities. MicroMed makes a small implant-able electric pump (the DeBakey VAD) that is intended to increase the cardiac output of a patient with a failing left ventricle. The DeBakey VAD and its related technology were developed in partnership with NASA.

•Royal Philips Electronics (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) has agreed to acquire Alpha X-Ray Technologies (Mumbai, India), a manufacturer of cardiovascular X-ray systems targeting the economy segment of the Indian market. Upon closing of this transaction in 4Q08, which is subject to certain contractual and other conditions such as regulatory approvals, Alpha will become part of the Cardiovascular X-ray business within Philips Healthcare (Andover, Massachusetts). Philips said that Alpha's product portfolio complements its existing high-end cardiovascular X-ray line.