Boston beat off competition from Johnson & Johnson before being successful with a deal worth $80 per share which the companies announced in January.
However, as part of the agreement which persuaded Guidant shareholders to accept the deal, Boston agreed to pay nearly $4.5 million for every day after March 31st that the deal was not closed.
“We are looking forward to realizing the substantial benefits of combining Boston Scientific and Guidant,” said Jim Tobin, president and CEO of Boston Scientific. “The new Boston Scientific will be a broadly diversified medical technology company that we believe will command a market valuation closer to our peers and generate significant upside potential for our stockholders.”
In a related transaction Abbott completed its acquisition of Guidant's vascular intervention and endovascular businesses for $4.1 billion.
Abbott will also pay Boston Scientific milestone payments of $250 million upon FDA approval of Guidant's drug-eluting stent, and an additional payment of $250 million upon a similar approval in Japan.
Abbott also provided Boston Scientific with a five-year, $900 million interest-bearing loan, and purchased approximately 64 million shares of Boston Scientific stock for $1.4 billion, which represents less than 5% of the company.
Abbott said that the Guidant deal will begin to show benefit in terms of earnings per share by 2007.