Investopedia: SonoSite Finds Its Deal

There was little mystery in seeing SonoSite (Nasdaq:SONO) get an acquisition bid. Not only has this relatively small manufacturer of portable ultrasound systems been a logical target for years, but the company began to actively and explicitly sell itself starting back in November. In a week that has seen another logical target (Synovis (Nasdaq:SYNO) get a bid from a not-so-likely buyer (Baxter (NYSE:BAX), the fact that it was Japan's Fujifilm that stepped up to buy the company makes this an a somewhat unusual story.

The Deal  
Fujifilm will be acquiring SonoSite for $995 million in cash, or about $54 per share. That's a 28% premium to Wednesday night's close and a 75% premium to the price of SonoSite's stock before it was widely known that the company was looking to sell. SonoSite is going out at a little more than three times trailing revenue, a multiple curiously similar to that of Synovis and one that is not all that robust by historical small-cap med-tech standards, but isn't so unreasonable given the performance of the company. (For related reading, see An Introduction To Small Cap Stocks.)

Please read more here:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2011/SonoSite-Finds-Its-Deal-SONO-GE-SI-PHG-MR-SYNO-BAX1219.aspx