bostonsci013009
On the homepage
Vikings
Out There
Pardon Board
Petters
Boston Sci expects a stronger 2009
Excluding a $2.7 billion write-down for its purchase of Guidant, the med-tech firm's quarter ended with a profit.
Print this story
E-mail this story
Save to del.icio.us
Share on Facebook
Share on Digg
Minnesota business by the numbers
See Minnesota's top earning companies, CEOs and non-profits
More from Business
Although two of its major products -- heart stents and defibrillators -- were under siege last year, Boston Scientific's chief executive expressed confidence during an analysts' call Thursday that the med-tech company will turn the corner in 2009.
Already, the Natick, Mass.-based company is "stronger, leaner, more diversified and more focused,'' said Chief Executive Jim Tobin.
But the company had a few financial housekeeping items to tend to in its fourth-quarter and year-end earnings report, released late Wednesday.
The company's fourth-quarter loss widened after it wrote down $2.7 billion associated with the $27.5 billion purchase of Arden Hills-based Guidant Corp. in 2006. That operation and the cardiovascular division in Maple Grove employ about 5,300 people locally.
"The write-down in no way diminishes our confidence in the [Guidant] business," Tobin said.
The net loss for the quarter was $2.4 billion, or $1.62 a share, compared with a loss of $458 million, or 31 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding the write-down and other items, Boston Scientific said it made a profit of 21 cents a share for the quarter, better than the 13 cent a share estimate projected by analysts.
Sales for the quarter were $2 billion, down slightly from $2.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007.
Boston Scientific's shares closed Thursday at $8.76, up 26 cents.
Three years ago, Boston Scientific engaged in a bidding war with rival Johnson & Johnson for Guidant, which makes pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), stopwatch-sized devices that shock or pace errantly beating hearts back into rhythm.
While Boston Scientific won, some analysts questioned whether the company paid too much -- especially after the defibrillator market tanked following several safety recalls beginning in 2005.
But overall sales for Boston Scientific's defibrillator and pacemaker division in the quarter were $383 million, up from $347 million in the comparable quarter of 2007. ICD sales were $299 million, up 12 percent.
"I really think the [defibrillator] market is on the road to recovery,'' said Venkat Rajan, medical device industry analyst for Frost & Sullivan.
"The [Guidant] business has already benefited us, we've greatly diversified our product portfolio and this year, it will be the major growth engine we envisioned when we acquired Guidant," Tobin said.
Likewise, the $4 billion market for drug-coated stents -- tiny mesh struts that prop open clogged cardiac arteries -- was hammered with a series of reports that potentially deadly blood clots may be associated with the therapy. Last year, Boston Scientific introduced three stents in the United States, but it faced new competition from Abbott Laboratories and Fridley-based Medtronic Inc.
Analyst Rajan said having the broadest product offerings on the market will help Boston Scientific defend market share.
Janet Moore • 612-673-7752
Recent Business stories
Freddie Mac says losses related to Taylor, Bean bankruptcy 'could be significant' - January 29, 2009
Freddie Mac says losses related to Taylor, Bean bankruptcy 'could be significant' - Mortgage finance company Freddie Mac said Monday it could lose $500 million or more as a result of the bankruptcy protection filing of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. More
- Holiday gift: Amazon-Wal-Mart price war
- Record 2.1M dropside cribs recalled
- Verdict? Petters jurors back at it today
- Economy's rebound not as strong as first thought
- A man with a plan to get jobless working stiffs back to work
- Stores jump the gun to get jump on competition
- Medtronic reports higher second-quarter earnings
Blog: Patent Pending
Lights out at U energy conference. Irony police notified.
Just as Lawrence Kazmerski, a top official at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, was about to give the keynote address at the University of Minnesota's annual E3 conference at the RiverCentre in St. Paul, the lights went out, bathing the audience in darkness and a deep sense of irony.
Comment on this story | Be the first to comment | Hide reader comments