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Biotech / Medical : PFE (Pfizer) How high will it go? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (6430)	12/4/1998 3:43:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 9523

Stryker Closes $1.65 Bln Purchase of Pfizer's Howmedica Unit Bloomberg News December 4, 1998, 2:24 p.m. ET Stryker Closes $1.65 Bln Purchase of Pfizer's Howmedica Unit Kalamazoo, Michigan, Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Stryker Corp. said it completed its $1.65 billion purchase of Pfizer Inc.'s Howmedica unit, making Stryker one of the biggest makers of orthopedic equipment and allowing Pfizer to concentrate on its drug business. Stryker last month renegotiated the purchase price, cutting $250 million from the $1.9 billion agreement the companies announced in August. The transaction allows Kalamazoo, Michigan-based Stryker to expand its offerings of replacement knees and hips, giving it about 15 percent of the market as doctors and hospitals look to reduce their suppliers in the fragmented field of orthopedics. ''This gives the high probability that they can continue to grow (earnings) at 20 percent for the next five years,'' said Steven Halper, a Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette analyst with a ''buy'' rating on Stryker. ''They are going to go in and clean up that business and run it better than Pfizer could.'' With the sale of the Howmedica unit, which it acquired in 1972, Pfizer closes its medical technology group to concentrate on developing new drugs to sell along with its impotence drug, Viagra. Since the start of the year, New York-based Pfizer has sold off its Valleylab operations to United States Surgical Corp. for $425 million, its Schneider Worldwide unit to Boston Scientific Corp. for $2.1 billion and American Medical Systems to E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Co. for $130 million. Stryker rose 1 5/16 to 44 3/4, while Pfizer rose 2 1/8 to 112 3/8 in midafternoon trading. --Christopher Elser in the Princeton newsroom (609) 279-4107/gfh