Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Covidien launches financing arm Covidien Ventures

By Mass High Tech Staff

Health-care supplier and medical device developer Covidien Ltd. reports that it has established Covidien Ventures, a corporate venture division of the Mansfield-based company.

Covidien Ventures will invest in areas of strategic importance to the company with the goal of providing early exposure to innovative technologies and enhancing market intelligence in health-care products, company officials said.

Covidien (NYSE: COV; BSX: COV) reports that Covidien Ventures will be managed by Daniel T. Sheehan, who recently joined Covidien from Minnesota-based Affinity Capital Management.

The news comes weeks after officials at the The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc. in Cambridge confirmed that they planned to shut down Draper’s corporate venture fund, Navigator Technology Ventures LLC, which Draper established in 2000.

Covidien, formerly Tyco Healthcare, employs more than 42,000 workers in 57 countries worldwide. Mass High Tech ranked the company the largest medical device firm in New England in December 2007, with 5,000 employees based in Massachusetts.

Earlier this month, Covidien acquired for an undisclosed amount the technology of CardioDigital Inc., a patient monitoring technology company focused on the improvement of signal processing. CardioDigital is headquartered in Portland, Ore., but develops its technology at its research unit in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Covidien will use the technology within its respiratory and monitoring solutions business unit. The company said its Nellcor pulse oximetry platform would also benefit from CardioDigital’s patient monitoring technology.

Covidien reported a 2007 net loss of $342 million on sales of $10.2 billion.