St. Jude and Abbott divest medical devices for $1.12 billion

Abbott Laboratories, which is in the process of buying St. Jude Medical Inc for $25 billion, said the companies would sell some of their medical devices to Japan-based Terumo Corp for about $1.12 billion.

Abbott Laboratories, who is acquiring St. Jude Medical Inc for $25 billion, have a greed to divest some of their medical devices to Japan-based Terumo Corp for about $1.12 billion.

This divestment is important to finalize the St. Jude acquisition, which is scheduled to close by the year-end.

St. Jude's shares were up 1.93%.  Abbott's shares were up 1% to $40.96.

St. Jude announced last week that a recall of its 400,000 implanted heart devices was necessary due to risk of premature battery depletion, an issue that was linked to two deaths in Europe.

Abbott has been divesting to focus on its cardiovascular devices and diagnostics business, selling its medical optics division to J&J recently for $4.3 billion last month.