GE Healthcare to Acquire Certain Assets of ONI Medical Systems

GE Healthcare, the US$ 17 billion healthcare business of General Electric Company, has announced it has entered into an agreement to purchase certain assets of ONI Medical Systems, Inc., a privately held company headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts.

In a release, the Company noted that in line with GE's healthymagination vision, ONI's products will expand GE Healthcare's Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) capabilities, offering healthcare professionals a broader range of MRI products to enable more cost-effective imaging procedures in a variety of patient care settings. Financial terms were not disclosed.

ONI Medical Systems is a provider of high performance, low-cost, dedicated purpose MRI systems. This includes the MSK Extreme 1.0T and the MSK Extreme 1.5T, the world's only compact designed, high-field, truly open configuration extremity MRI systems available in the medical marketplace. ONI's scanners are designed specifically for imaging of the extremities - only the joint being imaged is inside of the scanner. GE said that ONI's products also have a small footprint for convenient siting in limited spaces and premium image quality, allowing clinicians' the same diagnostic confidence for extremity imaging at a lower cost when compared to a whole body MRI unit.

"One of the cornerstones of GE's healthymagination vision is to develop and invest in technologies that increase quality, improve access and decrease costs. In line with this vision, the addition of ONI's products enhances our Magnetic Resonance business. It gives us an opportunity to explore technologies that will increase patient access for claustrophobic patients, products with a smaller footprint and premium image quality, and specialty systems that provide advanced, cost-effective MR patient imaging," said Jim Davis, vice president and general manager of GE Healthcare's global MR business.

"Through this transaction, GE Healthcare is acquiring an outstanding R&D team of engineers and scientists led by Dr. Peter Roemer, an International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine's 2009 Gold Medal Award winner. We believe by combining the expertise and knowledge of these two businesses, we will create significant added value for our customers and patients everywhere," added Davis.

"As one of ONI's original founders and a co-inventor of the MSK Extreme scanners, I am very excited to join the GE team in offering our products to customers worldwide. Our product line is highly synergistic with GE's whole-body MR business. Our companies share a vision of providing innovative solutions for cost-effective, high-quality MR imaging. By joining GE Healthcare, we can combine our comprehensive product offerings and expand our global reach," said Peter Roemer, Chief Technology Officer at ONI.

"We commend ONI's vision and successful execution of building a specialized MRI instrument platform," said Zubeen Shroff, Chairman of ONI Medical. "On behalf of the Galen Partners led investor syndicate that included Ivy Capital Partners and Ziegler Meditech Equity Partners, we are proud of ONI's accomplishments and are pleased these innovative devices will be part of GE's MRI offering."

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close during the 4th quarter of 2009.

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