Water Street Healthcare Partners, a leading company in healthcare field, mentioned today that it has made a new 
agreement with Given Imaging Ltd (GIVN), a company producing gastro-intestinal (GI) diagnostic and monitoring solutions. Upon this agreement, Water Street will sell its gastro-diagnostic device company, Sierra Scientific Instruments, to GIVN. The purchase will cost GIVN $35 million in cash and the process is to be finished next April.
Sierra Scientific was established by Water Street, the company's goal is to offer diagnostic systems for the clinical gastroenterology market. Sierra Scientific combined with Alpine Biomed Corporation, a specialty diagnostic device company, back in 2009. Sierra Scientific produces a wide range of products aiming to support clinicians with the diagnosis of several GI conditions including gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), common condition affecting about 147 million persons worldwide.
Homi Shamir, president and chief executive officer, Given Imaging, said "Sierra Scientific is a strong, well managed company respected by the GI community for its cutting-edge products which deliver reliable performance. This acquisition strengthens Given Imaging's position as the global leader in the gastroesophageal diagnostic market. With manometry, impedance, catheter pH and Bravo wireless pH products, we advance our vision of providing total world-class solutions to our GI customers' evolving product needs," he added "From a financial standpoint, acquiring Sierra will increase our revenue base and ultimately profitability. It enables us to diversify our product and geographic revenues through access to additional best-in-class products, people and manufacturing assets. We plan to offer our full product portfolio to our expanded customer base to drive broader use of all of our products."
Sierra Scientific headquarters are located in Los Angeles, and the company has a manufacturing facility recently 
opened in HoChiMinh City, Vietnam. The company managed to achieve approximately $18 million in 2009 as revenue. About 60% of these revenues came from sales in the United States, while 40% came from international sales mainly in Europe. John Arnott, recruited by Water Street to lead Alpine Biomed and currently works as chairman of Sierra Scientific, said "It has been rewarding to play a lead role in building this organization into the market leader. The fact that Given Imaging approached us about buying Sierra Scientific to further enhance its GI solutions affirms our success in creating a company of significant value. Sierra Scientific's customers and employees will prosper from becoming part of Given Imaging's global network of resources and broad range of GI solutions."
Ned Villers, a partner with Water Street, commented on the agreement saying "We are pleased that two highly regarded industry leaders valued the businesses that we helped build through our original investment in Alpine Biomed. When we acquired Alpine Biomed three years ago, our vision was to build a specialty diagnostic leader. We leveraged our team's deep healthcare expertise and network of industry relationships to ultimately create two market leaders in attractive segments of the health care industry. The agreement to sell Sierra Scientific to Given Imaging strategically positions the company for long-term success and delivers a solid return to our investors,"
