Zimmer Continues Divestments to Further Biomet Acquisition

Zimmer Holdings announced Thursday that it has reached agreements with buyers to divest certain U.S. assets, such as the Zimmer Unicompartmental high-flex knee system, Biomet Discovery elbow system and Cobalt bone cements portfolios — moves mandated by the FTC to secure approval of its pending Biomet acquisition.

The FTC raised competitive concerns about the proposed acquisition. However, with these divestures, Zimmer is confident the deal will be able to be completed in the next few weeks. The European Commission and Japan Fair Trade Commission already approved the transaction.

Warsaw, Ind.-based Zimmer markets orthopedic reconstructive, spinal and trauma devices, dental implants and related surgical products. The devicemaker’s 2014 sales were about $4.7 billion. — Jason Scott