Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Today in Robotics: Stryker Buys RoboDoc, Mako Surgical Up 82% (MAKO; SYK)

From Reuters:
Stryker buys Mako Surgical to gain robot surgery skills
Medical device maker Stryker Corp (SYK.N) will buy smaller peer Mako Surgical Corp (MAKO.O) for about $1.65 billion to gain access to Mako's technology for robot-assisted orthopedic surgery.

Mako shares jumped 83 percent at $29.57 in morning trade, just shy of the offer price Of $30 per share.
Analysts said that while the premium was hefty, the deal can give Stryker a competitive advantage over rival makers of orthopedic implants and may trigger a wave of takeovers in the medical technology companies.

Mako, founded in 2004, makes orthopedic surgical systems and knee and hip implants for treating early to mid-stage osteoarthritis. Its Rio surgical system includes a robotic arm that helps surgeons with precise insertion of implants....MORE
We have a total of one comment on MAKO on the blog, 2012's "The Doctor's Robot Will See You Now (IRBT)":
I've mentioned I played Devils Advocate when a partner pitched Intuitive Surgical. I was overruled and ISRG went from $15 to a bit over $300. It's trading around $500 now.
Another medical-robotics company we've looked at but not mentioned on the blog is MAKO Surgical.

It has had a couple waterfall declines in the last few months...

...The  departure of a director and the VP of sales and a slowdown in the company's growth were blamed..

Not a fun ride but maybe it smooths out ....
Real insightful huh. The stock closed that day at $13.15.
I'm starting to think there may be something to this medical robot stuff.
In my defense, here's the 2-year chart:
Chart forMAKO Surgical Corp. (MAKO)
Yahoo Finance
Not much of a defense, I know, but it's all I've got.