For the first half of this year, mergers and acquisitions among med-tech companies have been big, writes Stacy Lawrence at Fierce Medical Devices. The top five deals announced so far this year have been larger, she notes, that the top five from the first half of last year.
"Investors have taken well to these acquisitions; most have seen a double- or even triple-digit gain in their share prices since these med tech deals were announced," she says.
For the first half of 2014, the deals so far clock in at $63.2 billion, compared to last year's first half total of $24.6 billion. The top deal so far this year, Lawrence notes, is the merger of Medtronic and Covidien for $42.9 billion in cash and stock, followed by the $13.4 billion acquisition of Biomet by Zimmer.
Still, over a slightly longer term Illumina has particularly made out well. According to Lawrence, the company has gained 226 percent since it announced its takeover of Verinata in early 2013.