Some folks may not realize it but Medtronic has acquired numerous companies in the past. Upon acquisition, most of the target companies' employees become employees of Medtronic, although many didn't even get a name change on the building they worked at. At most the sign might now read Mazor Robotics, and in small print below that it might say "A wholly owned subsidiary of Medtronic plc". A strategic acquisition is for an entire company like Titan, not just the results of their work up to a point. Buying a company is for the future, and the expertise to optimize Enos and subsequent related technologies resides within the Titan engineering team. As an acknowledgement of that expertise, the giant whale of a company Medtronic said something like "Crap, these guys at Titan are doing a better job than we are at developing surgical robotics so maybe we need to get our hands on that expertise." Milestones are proof that they will get the expertise they need for tasks they obviously couldn't manage successfully themselves.
Is Hugo really any better than Trixie's Senhance? Or does it have a chance at success becaue they have the marketing power of Medtronic pushing it into the market? I'm guessing the latter, almost entirely. They know their product isn't a revolution in robotic surgery, but that's what they will need to go head to head with ISRG or to make a worthwhile profit in that market. "Help us Obi Wan McNally, you're our only hope!"
