There are some very big dogs in the cardiovascular device space and Abbott Laboratories is about to become one of the biggest in the yard. The Abbott Park, Ill.-based company made a bid to acquire St. Jude Medical Inc. for $25 billion plus the assumption of $5.7 billion in debt. The deal sets St. Jude shareholders up to get $46.75 in cash and 0.8708 shares of Abbott common stock, for a total consideration of roughly $85 a share. The price represents a 37 percent premium to St. Jude's closing price Wednesday.

The story coming out of Avinger Inc. isn’t so much that the Redwood City, Calif.-based company significantly lowered guidance for 2016 revenue, but rather it received FDA clearance for an enhanced version of its lumivascular atherectomy system. Analysts sang tunes of praise – almost totally overlooking the firm’s ultra conservative stance on revenue. Consensus had estimates at $38 million, but Avinger gave guidance at between $25 million and $30 million. “The approval of Pantheris is the most important milestone in the company’s [nine-year], history,” said Jason Mills, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity. Analysts are championing Pantheris, as a product...

It took 10 years but Boston Scientific (BSX) may have finally overcome its ill-advised 2006 Guidant acquisition. The company’s shares hit a decade high Wednesday, at one point spiking nearly 12 percent to $22.05 after knocking its first quarter sales out of the park. Listening to the earnings call, the baseball fan in me couldn’t help but draw comparisons between the company’s better-than-expected earnings and what is already a record-setting season for the Chicago Cubs. Sure, it seemed like a stretch at first, but the more I thought about it the more the analogy made sense. After all, the Cubs...