Covidien Ltd. said Tuesday that it’s buying Ev3 Inc., a medical device maker with some 350 workers and roots in Irvine, for $2.6 billion.
Covidien, a diversified medical device maker that operates out of Massachusetts, said it was buying Ev3 to build up its business for devices to treat blood vessel diseases.
Ev3 makes stents and other products for treating arterial diseases.
Covidien’s offer is 19% more than what Ev3’s shares were worth before the offer.
The deal is expected to close in July.
Ev3, which operates locally in the Irvine Spectrum, has deep roots in OC.
It was the majority shareholder of Irvine’s Micro Therapeutics Inc., which made devices for blood vessel diseases and brain disorders. Ev3 eventually bought the rest of Micro Therapeutics in 2006.
Orange County resident James Corbett served as Ev3’s chief executive for four years. Corbett was chief executive of Micro Therapeutics shortly after Ev3 bought its stake in that company.
In 2008, Corbett was replaced by Robert Palmisano, a veteran medical device executive who was known for taking IntraLase Corp., a maker of lasers used in vision correction surgery, public. Palmisano kept Ev3’s headquarters in Minnesota.
With the Ev3 buy, Covidien is drawing closer to a pair of its fierce rivals.
Covidien has battled against Masimo Corp., an Irvine maker of patient monitoring devices, and Santa Margarita’s Applied Medical Resources Corp., a maker of surgical devices, over patent and other issues for many years.
