Stock Offering Fuels Inverness’ Thirst for Acquisition

Buoyed by a recent stock offering, the Inverness Medical machine continues to gobble up companies as they consolidate the disease and health management service space.

The most recent acquisition of ParadigmHealth will cost the company $230 million in an all cash deal. Paradigm offers disease management services for the acutely ill, with a focus on newborns and cancer patients. The company, founded in 1991, reported $60 million in revenues over the past twelve months.

Inverness said it is buying the ParadigmHealth as part of an expansion into disease-management services from medical testing and diagnostics.

Inverness has been on a buying spree this past year, having acquired or made substantial investments in: Alere Medical, Biosite, Cholestech, Diamics, HemoSense and Quality Assured Services, Inc., among others.

We’ve followed a number of these deals in the past months including the fierce bidding war with Beckman Coulter that broke out over Biosite.

Earlier this month, Inverness closed an offering of 13+ million shares of common stock priced at $61.49 apiece. The net proceeds were approximately $806.4 million, plenty of cash to fuel the company’s thirst for acquisition.

Ron Zwanziger, CEO of Inverness said, “The acquisition of ParadigmHealth is a significant step in our strategy to become a leader in disease and health management services. When combined with our prior acquisitions of QAS and Alere, ParadigmHealth will contribute to our goal of enabling individuals to manage their health effectively.”