Stryker to buy device reprocessor Ascent

The boards of Stryker and Ascent have approved the transaction, which is awaiting U.S. antitrust approval. The business would become a division of Kalamazoo, Michigan-based Stryker's MedSurg group.

Stryker said the transaction, which it anticipates will close before the end of 2009, should be neutral to its 2010 per-share earnings and accretive thereafter.

Ascent, with over 900 employees and reprocessing facilities in Phoenix and in Lakeland, Florida, had sales of more than $100 million in 2008.

The company provides device reprocessing and remanufacturing services to more than 1,800 hospitals and numerous group purchasing organizations in North America. Its products includes cardiovascular, orthopedics, gastroenterology and general surgery devices.

(Reporting by Susan Kelly, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)