It does seem to be a fairly small price to pay and we haven't seen the full terms of the deal. Only my opinion here, but I think you are seeing that Viking realized that they did not have the scale and the value of the offering was not compelling enough to make the market transition quickly to 3DHD technology. The value of getting an integrated package with 3D might make more sense as it becomes a "system" rather than a bolt on package. I'm no expert on this market, but I'm guessing most surgical packages for MIS procedures come with some sort of visualization, which is 2DHD today. Is 3DHD really that much better? Does it warrant the extra 30-40K price tag VKNG was charging? Does it make sense to rip out the existing visualization and spend six figures just to go to 3DHD? I think they were building the message that it does, but it wasn't a slam dunk for the industry. If I was building or equipping a new OR, then yes it probably was, but Viking was selling a stand alone product not a package for MIS procedures. I still think this is a great opportunity long term, just that Viking didn't have the right mix of personnel and support (distributors, integrators, etc) to make it happen quickly. Plus, it does not appear they were going to the folks that suplied "systems" to include their visualization package - or they did and were not successful.
Also, we haven't heard a peep out of their hired guns for Sales and Mktg, so maybe they got on board and realized they needed a different focus and more resources to make it happen and getting acquired was the better answer. Tough to say as many of us are not well connected to any company insiders. This may have been the easy way out for VKNG and we'll have to see if anything more is made of the deal by CNMD going forward. I'll be reading my share voting papers closely to see what is revealed.
Has anyone seen if shareholders are just getting cash or CNMD stock for the VKNG shares? I'm at a break even point, which is discouraging, but not the end of the world. I do think that someone can be successful providing a system that is under the price point of ISRG with 3D visualization. How long has it taken ISRG to get to the point of selling 500 systems per year? CNMD could be a company that is positioned to bring that to the market, or Viking just took the first willing participant. We'll see how the story unfolds...
GLTA
