Medtronic pays $75 million to settle claims for defibrillators
According to recent reports from Bloomberg News, Medtronic Inc.,maker of electronic heart devices, has agreed to pay more than $75 million to settle 2000 lawsuits claiming it hid defects in its defibrillators. Surprisingly enough, the shareholders did not perceive of this as bad news, because the stock only dropped .13 per share. I am sure that management in the company is not happy, because this affects their bonuses and stock portfolio, but it could have been a lot worse. They only lost money, but think of the lives that have been harmed because of the defect.
Another major rival of Medtronic, Boston Scientific Corp., Guidant's parent, agreed last week to pay $195 million to satisfy about 4,000 claims that its defibrillators were defective. According to a published report in the Palm Beach Post, Guidant set aside $732 million to cover the costs of settlements and litigation, if the trial would have continued that was scheduled for July 30th. Last year, the company made about $7.21 billion in net sales for 2006, this is not bad at all.
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