Johnson & Johnson said it would pay $1.07 billion in cash to buy Mentor Corporation, a supplier of breast implants and other cosmetic products.

Under the terms of the agreement, J&J will purchase all outstanding shares of Mentor at $31.00 per share, a premium of $14.85, or 92 percent, over Mentor's closing price last Friday of $16.15. After announcing the purchase, Mentor's stock leapt 90 percent to $30.71. J&J's stock fell 2.7 percent to $57.03.

This is the second acquisition J&J has announced in the last week. In November, J&J said it would acquire biotech company Omrix Biopharmacueticals Inc. for $438 million to grow its surgical care business. Now that many biotech and healthcare companies are at market lows, Wall Street expects the company to ink more deals in the near future.
Mentor is expected to operate as a stand-alone business unit reporting through Ethicon, Inc., J&J's subsidiary that is a leading provider of suture, mesh and other surgical products.

Upon closing, the transaction is expected to have a dilutive impact to Johnson & Johnson's 2009 earnings per share of approximately $.03-$.05. The merger is expected to close in the first quarter of 2009.

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