Austin—Medical device company LDR Holdings (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LDRH]]) has been acquired for about $1 billion in cash by fellow device manufacturer Zimmer Biomet (NYSE: [[ticker:ZBH]]).
Zimmer’s offer to pay $37 a share represents a 64 percent premium to LDR’s closing price on Monday. Zimmer, which is based in Warsaw, IN, picked up LDR to add the Austin, TX, company’s suite of spinal devices to its existing roster of reconstructive and orthopedic devices such as replacement hips. In particular, Zimmer said in the acquisition announcement Tuesday that it was interested in LDR’s expertise to provide Zimmer an “immediate and leading position” in the cervical disc replacement market.
LDR’s flagship product is the Mobi-C, a cervical disc replacement device intended to give patients with spinal injuries greater flexibility and movement in comparison to traditional therapies in which the vertebrae are fused together.
“Now, with the ability to insert this disc, we can restore the mobility of your neck,” founder and CEO Christophe Lavigne told me in 2013 following LDR’s IPO. “There are very few non-fusion options for surgeons in the surgical spine area.”
LDR was originally founded in France in 2000, Lavigne moved the company to Austin in 2005 at the urging of one of its investors, Austin Ventures.
