A Medina County developer of implants used in hand and foot surgery will be purchased by an Amsterdam company for $135 million.
OrthoHelix Surgical Designs, a privately held company, was founded in 2004 by orthopedic surgeon David Kay, who was frustrated with existing products. The company’s first office was in Akron and it moved to Granger Township in 2009.
Tornier NV, a global medical device company that is publicly traded and has operations in Bloomington, Minn., on Friday said the acquisition of OrthoHelix will include additional payments over two years, based on achieving revenue growth milestones.
The 80 employees at the Medina County headquarters and management team will stay in Granger Township and help develop the company, said Dennis Stripe, who will continue to lead OrthoHelix and report to Douglas Kohrs, the president and chief executive of Tornier.
“We’re already looking at expanding our facility here,” Stripe said. “Tornier is very anxious to plug our products into their international distribution network.” OrthoHelix distributes products only in the United States, Stripe said.
OrthoHelix markets specialty implantable screw and plate systems to repair small bone fractures and deformities, predominantly in the foot and ankle. Tornier’s products focus on the shoulder, elbow, wrist, hand, ankle and foot.
There is very little overlap between the Tornier and OrthoHelix products, though about 20 percent of their customers overlap, Kohrs said in a teleconference call.
“This transaction will enable us to substantially expand our sales coverage of foot and ankle surgeons, significantly enhance our addressable lower extremity market opportunity, and position us to achieve more consistent growth across our upper and lower extremity product categories,” Kohrs said in a news release.
The company will continue to operate under the Ortho-Helix name and retain its product brand names.
Stripe said when he took over the company a little over four years ago, he knew that the two venture capital firms from Cleveland and Cincinnati with investments in the company would be interested in an opportunity to exit. Stripe said he fielded many unsolicited letters of interest for several years.
Terms call for Tornier to acquire OrthoHelix for $100 million in cash and $35 million in Tornier stock.
Tornier stock closed Friday at $17.93, up 30 cents.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com.
