GE to Acquire OEC Medical Systems

General Electric Co., the world’s No. 1 maker of diagnostic-imaging equipment, has agreed to buy OEC Medical Systems Inc. for about $479 million in stock to build its line of machines used in emergency and operating rooms. GE would pay OEC shareholders $36 a share, 7% more than OEC’s closing price Friday of $33.63. Salt Lake City-based OEC had about 13.3 million shares outstanding as of June 30. GE’s Medical Systems division, based in Milwaukee, would gain imaging equipment used in hospital emergency rooms and minimally invasive surgeries such as laparoscopic, neurovascular, urological and cardiovascular. The transaction is expected to close by year-end. As part of the transaction, OEC, which had 1998 revenue of $189 million, granted GE the option to acquire newly issued shares of the company’s common stock, representing 15% of OEC’s outstanding shares. In addition, Forstmann-Leff Associates, which controls 23% of OEC’s common shares, agreed to vote its shares in favor of the acquisition. GE fell $1.94 to close at $105.06, and OEC rose 56 cents to close at $34.19, both on the NYSE.