After a decade as
Vital Images' largest customer, California-based
Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (TMSC) plans to take the local visualization and analysis software company into its fold.
Through a $273-million cash tender preceding a merger, a TMSC subsidiary will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Vital Images common stock for $18.75 per share--a 39 percent premium over a recent volume-weighted average, according to a press release.
Executives of both companies applauded the pending merger, which they believe will strengthen their longtime partnership. "This transaction means we can now accelerate our global presence with the strength and backing of TMSC," says Michael Carrel, CEO of Vital Images, in the release.
Toshiba plans to continue to build the Vital Images business locally at its Minnetonka headquarters, where 175 of its 245 employees work, says Nancy Johnson, account supervisor for
Padilla Speer Beardsley, which handles press relations for Vital Images. The company expects that the merger will lead to the hiring of more employees in the future, she says.
Vital Images' software allows doctors to non-invasively examine internal organs and more easily make diagnoses and plan for surgeries. The software takes two-dimensional, black-and-white images of internal organs through CT scan, MRI and other formats, then "stacks" them to create more complex imagery.
Doctors can navigate through the images, removing layers for a clear examination and "internal accounting without going through a physical operation," says Johnson.
Originally used in radiology departments, the software has been extended in recent years for hospital-wide accessibility by numerous physicians, she says, and it is accessible beyond the hospital via the Web, according to a product description. Vital Images software also serves as a data-management and work-flow tool.
Sources: Vital Images; Nancy Johnson, Padilla Speer Beardsley
Writer: Jeremy Stratton