Continued Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) insider purchases are a signal to outside investors that the company's shares currently are at a value-oriented price and that the company will be able to close its acquisition of St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE:STJ) soon. Washington, DC - U.S.-based global healthcare company Abbott Laboratories has agreed to divest two medical device businesses to settle FTC charges that its proposed $25 billion acquisition of St. Jude Medical, Inc. would likely be anticompetitive. The FTC's complaint alleges that without a remedy, the proposed acquisition would harm competition in the U.S. markets for vascular closure devices, which are used to close holes in arteries from the insertion of catheters, and for 'steerable' sheaths, which are used to guide catheters for treating heart arrhythmias.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission gives the antitrust go ahead to Abbott Laboratories in its acquisition of St. Jude Medical.