Cardiac Science Drops Spacelabs for Artema

Cardiac Science (Irvine, CA, USA) has withdrawn its proposal to acquire all the outstanding common stock of Spacelabs Medical, Inc. (Redmond, WA, USA) due to a lack of response from Spacelabs' board of directors. The company says it will continue to evaluate its holdings in Spacelabs, which amount to almost 400,000 shares,

Cardiac Science announced the offer in November 2000, noting that its offer of US$15 per share represented a 45% premium above Spacelabs' stock price. Cardiac Science stated that recurring revenue, competitive marketing advantages, and the potential to save thousands of lives could result from combining its automatic defibrillation technology with the bedside, portable, and ambulatory patient monitoring products of Spacelabs.

"We are disappointed by Spacelabs' lack of interest in our proposal,” said Raymond W. Cohen, president and CEO of Cardiac Science. "We cannot afford to spend additional valuable resources convincing Spacelabs' management and directors that they should investigate this opportunity.”

In January 2001, Cardiac Science began to pursue another opportunity, announcing it had offered to acquire Artema Medical AB (Stockholm, Sweden), a manufacturer of patient monitors and external cardiac defibrillator devices. Artema's board said it would recommend the offer to shareholders.



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