Zimmer Holdings, Inc. (NYSE and SIX: ZMH) ("Zimmer") announced today that it has finalized agreements with buyers to divest in the United States certain Zimmer® Unicompartmental High-Flex Knee System assets, Biomet Discovery® Elbow System assets and Cobalt™ bone cement assets. These divestiture agreements are in furtherance of Zimmer's pending acquisition of Biomet, Inc. ("Biomet").
Zimmer continues to work constructively with the Bureau of Competition Staff of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (the "FTC" and, such staff, the "FTC Staff") and is highly confident that within the next few weeks it can finalize the agreement in principle it reached previously with FTC Staff to resolve FTC Staff's competitive concerns regarding the proposed acquisition.
The divestiture agreements are subject to further review by the FTC and acceptance of a consent order by the Commissioners of the FTC. The closing of these transactions is also subject to other customary conditions.
As previously announced, both the European Commission and the Japan Fair Trade Commission have cleared Zimmer's proposed acquisition of Biomet. Upon the acceptance of the consent order by the FTC and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions, Zimmer intends to close the Biomet merger at the earliest possible date, which is currently anticipated to be mid-June, 2015.
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