European Union antitrust regulators will decide by May 26 whether to approve U.S. medical device maker Zimmer's $13.4 billion bid for rival Biomet after Zimmer modified concessions to allay competition concerns. The European Commission set the new deadline after a two-month pause in its scrutiny of a deal that would make Zimmer the world's second-largest seller of orthopaedic products behind Johnson & Johnson.Zimmer said it still hopes to gain regulatory approval in the first quarter of this year.It did not provide details of its revised concessions but said they were generally consistent with the initial package.Biomet is based in the United States but has a focus on orthopaedics from its European headquarters in Dordrecht, Netherlands.
Johnson & Johnson is a holding company engaged in the research and development, manufacture and sale of a broad range of products in the health care field. Shares of JNJ traded higher by 0.33% or $0.325/share to $100.10. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $90.66 and as high as $109.49. On average, 8289700 shares of JNJ exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 6819571.
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