December 26, 2007 - Royal Philips Electronics offered $430 million for a merger agreement with clinical IT and service provider Visicu Inc., aiming to integrate the company’s remote patient monitoring and clinical decision support technology with Philips’ patient monitors.
Philips will acquire the entire share capital of Visicu for $12.00 per share, representing a premium of approximately 35 percent over the Visicu stock closing price on NASDAQ on Dec. 17, 2007. Visicu has approved the merger and recommended its approval by stockholders, which will be decided during a meeting scheduled at a later date.
Philip’s said the merger will help produce products to give more clinical decision support to hospital staff, while and allow them to monitor greater numbers of critically ill patients.
Visicu is a maker of clinical IT systems that enable critical care medical staff to actively monitor patients in hospital intensive care units (ICUs) from remote locations. The company’s patented clinical IT system, called the eICU Program, provides real-time, constant patient monitoring in ICUs, and can be likened to an air-traffic controller’s command center by centrally networking critical care physicians and nurses to ICU beds using voice and video. The system also offers advanced clinical support including expert systems reflecting evidence-based medicine. The eICU Program has reportedly been shown to significantly reduce patient mortality, length of stay and medical complications while lowering ICU costs.
The transaction is subject to the terms and conditions of the merger agreement, the approval of VISICU’s stockholders, and to customary regulatory clearance and other closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close in the Q108.
For more information: www.philips.com, www.visicu.com