According to an article today in the New York Times, Johnson & Johnson has threatened to abandon its plan to acquire the Guidant Corporation.
As you may know, Guidant heart defibrillators have been recalled on due to electrical flaws that may cause death.
Guidant is already fighting to survive in court amidst a host of law suits, and some of the biggest personal injury attorneys in the US are all over the scene. New York’s attorney general, Mr. Eliot Spitzer, has filed a lawsuit against Guidant, accusing them of fraud in connection with sales of a Guidant heart defibrillator model that has allegedly short-circuited in some cases. Now they could find themselves in another legal battle over this $25.4 billion dollar deal-gone-bad with Johnson & Johnson.
I’d hate to be holding Guidant stock right about now…
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