Just three weeks after vehemently defending its proposed acquisition of Valtech Cardio Ltd. (Yehuda, Israel), Heartware International Inc. (Framingham, Mass.) nixed the stock-based deal, which was valued at $929 million and announced in September.

  The mood was pretty somber going into Heartware’s (Framingham, Mass.) breakout session during the 34th annual J.P.Morgan Healthcare conference. But why wouldn’t it be? It’s not everyday that a med-tech CEO has to discuss halting a European trial on one of its most promising technologies. But that’s exactly what Doug Godshall, Heartware president/CEO did. Godshall, who took the leadership position of Heartware in 2006, delivered the bad news across a sea of somewhat disenchanted faces during the conference. He did a great job, but honestly, is there ever a “good way” to deliver bad news? You see, Godshall revealed...

With nearly $20 billion of net cash, the industry can expect to see "disciplined and decisive actions" from Johnson & Johnson (J&J; New Brunswick, N.J.) regarding mergers and acquisitions this year, CEO Alex Gorsky said during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call.