Circon to Shut Down German Facility

Circon Corp. will close its money-losing sales and service center in Germany and fire the site’s nine workers, resulting in a $535,000 charge as the company streamlines in Europe. The maker of products for minimally invasive surgery will close the facility in Munich by the end of the year, said R. Bruce Thompson, Circon’s chief financial officer. Circon expects the charge to be offset by a tax gain of $630,000. European operations account for about 7% of the company’s sales, Thompson said. The company is striving to become more efficient to fend off a $235-million hostile takeover bid by US Surgical Corp. Shares of Santa Barbara-based Circon were unchanged at $16.19 on Nasdaq. US Surgical shares fell 13 cents to close at $29.38 on the New York Stock Exchange.