Abbott silent on possible Boston Scientific spinoffs

Boston Scientific Corp., the world's second-largest maker of heart devices, is seeking buyers for its Target Therapeutics and neuromodulation units, said a person with knowledge of the matter.

The Natick, Massachusetts-based company has hired Bank of America Corp. to advise the company on the sale of the units and approached potential buyers in recent weeks, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks are private.

Boston Scientific has said it expects sales growth for drug- coated cardiac stents and heart defibrillators to slow this year. Selling the two units could bring in about $2 billion, Larry Biegelsen, an analyst with Wells Fargo Securities Inc., said in a research report today. Johnson & Johnson would be a logical candidate to buy the neuromodulation unit and Abbott Laboratories might be a candidate for the Target unit, said Derrick Sung, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein in New York.

"I think it makes sense for the company to want to sell" these units, Sung said in a telephone interview today. The neuromodulation division "is currently not profitable" and the company "would be required to invest pretty heavily" in the next three to four years to make the business competitive, he said.

Boston Scientific spokesman Paul Donovan declined to comment, as did John Yiannacopoulos, spokesman at Bank of America.

Cutting JobsBoston Scientific said Feb. 10 it was cutting as many as 1,300 jobs, or 10 percent of its non-manufacturing workforce.Neuromodulation, Boston Scientific's fastest-growing unit, will generate about $342 million in 2010 sales, Biegelsen projected. JJ and Abbott would both be potential buyers for this unit, he said in the research note. These products use electrical currents to treat nerve-related chronic pain.Neurovascular sales will be about $353 million in 2010, Biegelsen estimated. Medtronic and St. Jude Medical Inc. are among the companies that might want to acquire this unit, he said. These products are used to treat bleeding disorders in the brain.Adelle Infante, spokeswoman for Libertyville Township--based Abbott, and Chuck Grothaus, a spokesman for Minneapolis-based Medtornic, also declined to comment. Marc Monseau, a spokesman for JJ, said the New Brunswick, New Jersey company "doesn't comment on rumors or speculation."Guy Davis, a spokesman for St. Paul, Minnesota-based St. Jude, didn't immediately return a call for comment after regular business hours. Reuters reported the effort to sell the two units earlier.