In December, Sonic Healthcare (Sonic; Sydney, Australia) announced that it would acquire American Esoteric Labs (AEL; Nashville, TN) for $180 million. However, unlike their October acquisition of Cognoscenti Health Institute, which was purchased through what was thought to be Sonic’s United States subsidiary, Clinical Pathology Laboratories (CPL), Sonic positioned the AEL acquisition as a purchase by Sonic, not CPL. Now the reason for that is clear. Upon completing the AEL acquisition in late January, Sonic announced that it would also acquire the remaining 18% of CPL, in which it purchased an 82% stake in October 2005. Sonic paid $82.7 million for the minority interests, which implies that the value of the businesses has appreciated by about 13% since the majority of CPL was acquired.

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February 2007 - Table of Contents

LIR February 2007 (full PDF issue)

Lab Industry Follows Pharma Into Direct-to-Consumer Marketing

Lab Execs Map Out Competitive Strategies

Sonic Deviates From Offshore Strategy, Acquires Remaining 18% of CPL

Horizon/LabCorp Deal Ousts Bio-Reference

RedPath Builds on a Convergence of Technology

New Congress to Influence Critical Laboratory, Pathology Issues

Cutting Out the Middle Man? Major Lab Players Target Patients in New Media Campaigns

Spectrum to Use Thomson’s MercuryMD Mobile EHR System

United Will Cover Oncotype DX Testing

Lab Stocks Rose 29% In 2006; Genomic Health Was Best Performer

FDA to Hold Meeting on IVDMIAs