July 24, 2008 – GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), and Vital Signs, Inc. (NASDAQ: VITL) announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement for GE to acquire Vital Signs. Under the terms of the agreement, shareholders of Vital Signs will receive $74.50 per share in cash for each Vital Signs share they own. Vital Signs is a global provider of medical products applicable to a wide range of care areas such as anesthesia, respiratory, sleep therapy and emergency medicine. Vital Signs has a broad product offering of innovative single-patient use products which offer significant cost advantages and improved patient care features, including reducing the potential of transmitting infections from one patient to another.
Vital Signs will become part of GE Healthcare’s Clinical Systems business, a world-class provider of advanced technologies for patient monitoring, anesthesia delivery and acute respiratory care. The strong strategic fit between the two businesses will offer substantial customer benefits through complementary product and service offerings... GE Healthcare's Press Release - Vital Signs' Press Release -
