Hill-Rom Jumps on Report Baxter Wants to Buy It for $10 Billion

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By Dhirendra Tripathi

Investing.com – Hill-Rom stock (NYSE:HRC) was up almost 4% in Monday’s premarket on a report in The Wall Street Journal that medical technology company Baxter (NYSE:BAX) is in advanced talks to buy the maker of hospital equipment in a deal worth around $10 billion.

The WSJ report pegged the value of each Hill-Rom share that Baxter is ascribing to it at $150, around 13% higher than the stock’s closing on Friday.

Baxter share had closed 0.3% higher Friday and traded 0.1% up in after-hours.

Mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. healthcare sector have taken place at a frenetic pace this year amid booming demand for these services in the wake of the pandemic.

Takeover deals worth $399 billion have been struck in the U.S. so far this year, according to Dealogic.

Hill-Rom is a maker of hospital beds and patient-monitoring devices. Baxter is a medical-technology company focusing on critical care, nutrition and surgical products.