by
Thomas Dworetzky, Contributing Reporter | January 10, 2017
Hill-Rom Holdings is buying medical instrument maker Mortara Instrument – which specializes in diagnostic cardiology and patient monitoring solutions, technologies and devices – for $330 million in cash.
"It's a great fit with our Welch Allyn business,” Hill-Rom president and CEO John J. Greisch
told Syracuse.com.
"Our growing Welch Allyn franchise will be immediately strengthened by the addition of Mortara Instrument's experienced team, breadth of diagnostic cardiology and patient monitoring offerings, and best-in-class ability to integrate with electronic medical record (EMR) systems," he added.
Hill-Rom
acquired Welch Allyn in 2015 for $2.05 billion.
"With Mortara, we will expand our diagnostic cardiology franchise in the acute care, clinical research and primary care settings, where we will use our global commercial presence to accelerate growth of the Mortara business,” Greisch observed in a statement.
Mortara's range of products, sold under the Mortara, Quinton and Burdick brand names, include devices for resting electrocardiography (ECG), cardiac stress exercise, Holter monitoring, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, and cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation and multi-parameter patient monitoring.
The Milwaukee-based firm – with offices in Australia, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and the U.K. – has over 400 employees and 2016 revenues of $115 million.
David Mortara founded the firm in 1982. He had previously been vice president at Marquette Electronics, which was later sold to GE Healthcare. In 1998 Justin Mortara joined him and was made CEO in 2008. Both have physics doctorates. Since 2000, the company has seen its revenue rise by a factor of five.
“We laid the groundwork for some really nice things around 2000 and 2001, and from there it lifted nicely," Justin Mortara said in 2015,
according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
Present plans call for CEO Mortara to remain at the helm of the acquired company and to report to Hill-Rom Front Line Care President Alton Shader.
"By combining with Hill-Rom, Mortara Instrument will have greater opportunities to grow," said Mortara, stressing that, "Hill-Rom and Mortara Instrument share similar patient-centric cultures.”
