Titan Medical Inc (TMDIF)

[66Mustang]

I'm certainly thinking Yes on this.

Mr. Zaring started his career as a Financial Consultant for Merrill Lynch. Financial background gives him good insight into how a company is being run.

He then hops around to some big players - Merck, Ethicon, Intuitive. Maybe picked up a little knowledge on what makes a small company a good acquisition target for a big fish. Sees some of those qualities at Mazor, an up and coming product line and small enough to be easily acquired by a biggie. Only took him a year to get Medtronic to buy Mazor... not bad!

Hangs out at MDT for a couple years to get a good read on what else they are looking for. Sees their floundering robotics program. And Titan with robust technology but financial struggles. Match made in heaven. And he helped orchestrate the Mazor deal so he knows what both sides want/need (aside from each other, in the MDT/Titan case). Relationship initiated in the Mazor model; hit some milestones to get paid, then scoop when the product is ready... It took Mazor a little over two years to finish the design work and approval on X. Oh, BTW... meanwhile some finance deals occur, Titan gets some "mystery" funding (more mysterious to those who haven't actually read the Edgar filings) so it isn't too obvious that they are about to get acquired, or PPS shoots through the roof.

Let's go back to Mazor for a moment. Mr. Zaring joins in April 2015. Deal with MDT announced in spring of 2016 with an estimated 2 year timeline. Mazor receives external funding May 2016, and another round in August 2017 (https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/54975-25#funding). Gotta keep the ruse going to keep PPS down? Maybe...

Meanwhile, Mr. Martha rises to CEO, claiming his legacy is to be acquisitions. Titan deal is in process. Mr. Zaring heads to Venus Concept next. What are they doing? Hmmm... Robotics product in medical (aesthetics) arena. Mr. Zaring has been there about 6 months now. Here's an interesting article...

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/06/16/2049186/0/en/Venus-Concept-Inc-Announces-Common-Stock-Purchase-Agreement-for-up-to-31-Million-with-Lincoln-Park-Capital-Fund-LLC.html

Chad is there for a few months, nods his head Yes to Geoff. Last month, Venus enters a common share purchase agreement for up to $31M with a third party. Now go to the third paragraph, and think really hard about what they mean by "merger synergies" mid-paragraph.

Prediction: Mr. Zaring has a new job by the end of this year in a company which could be another acquisition target for Medtronic. Have I laid out a sufficient history here from which to extrapolate these hypotheses?

MX77 and ShortsRClowns, I do believe your "floater" suggestion is very well-founded, and that acquisition model is being repeated with any company large enough to merit a little digging before they dive in. Other recent acquisition targets are too small to merit that amount of effort (Digital Surgery, Intersect ENT, Medicrea...). But Titan, Mazor, Venus... all following the Chad model!


Message in reply to:
Is Zaring some kind of 'floater', meaning that MDT has him go to other companies like TMDI and VERO to determine their value and if further engagement is in MDT's best interest?