By agreeing to pay $2.6 billion to acquire endovascular player ev3 Inc., Covidien Ltd. emphatically made two points. [See Deal] First, Covidien – now three years removed from its spin out of Tyco International Ltd. – is demonstrating a familiar pattern of growing through acquisitions, as it did under Tyco a decade ago. [See Deal] Second, Warburg Pincus and Vertical Group made a good call 10 years ago in backing the creation of ev3 to target vascular markets outside the coronary, at least in the eyes of one of the principals who started the company.
In building through buying, Covidien is working with a familiar playbook. As Tyco Healthcare Group, the company grew into a...
