Deals
Becton’s $24 Billion Bard Purchase Caps String of Acquisitions
- Bard acquisition is 12th since Forlenza took over in 2011
- Medical suppliers have consolidated under price pressure
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For more than a century, medical devices company Becton, Dickinson & Co. got by without any major acquisitions. That’s changed dramatically under Chief Executive Officer Vincent Forlenza, who is turning out to be a serial dealmaker.
The company late on Sunday said it had forged its largest deal ever by agreeing to buy C.R. Bard Inc. for $24 billion to combine two of the world’s biggest health-care suppliers. That marks the 12th acquisition since Forlenza took the helm of the Franklin Lakes, New Jersey-based company more than five years ago, and eclipses the $12 billion acquisition of CareFusion Corp. he oversaw in March 2015.