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Baxter International Inc.
BAX,
is in advanced talks to buy medical-equipment maker Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. for around $10 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
A deal that values Hill-Rom
HRC,
at around $150 a share could be reached by midweek assuming the talks don’t fall apart, the people said.
The talks follow an earlier bid from Baxter worth $144 a share that Hill-Rom rebuffed. Hill-Rom shares jumped in late July on news of that bid and have remained elevated, closing Friday at $132.90. Hill-Rom currently has a market capitalization of nearly $9 billion. Baxter’s is around $37 billion.
Chicago-based Hill-Rom, founded in 1915, makes medical gear such as hospital beds and patient-monitoring devices.
