Medtronic PLC employs at least 300 more people in Minnesota than it did a year ago, when the company's world headquarters was still in Fridley, company executives said Thursday.
Now based in Dublin, Ireland, the medical technology manufacturer has been transforming itself since it acquired surgical supplier Covidien PLC in a $49.9 billion January deal that also moved the combined company's legal address overseas.
Although the deal proved controversial with some politicians and many longtime individual investors, Medtronic pledged to add 1,000 jobs in the state within five years.
"We have added jobs in Minnesota, per our earlier commitment," Medtronic CEO Omar Ishrak said in an interview after a quarterly earnings report Thursday. "I think we've added 300 or 400 jobs already in Minnesota."
Many of the jobs are moving from Mansfield, Mass., where Covidien previously had its U.S. headquarters. Before the deal, Medtronic employed about 8,000 people in Minnesota, and Covidien had 1,300 workers in the state. Medtronic has roughly 87,000 employees worldwide, according to company shareholder handouts.
Chief Financial Officer Gary Ellis noted Thursday that about 500 positions in the company have been eliminated since the deal. "But in many cases, those employees have found another role within the organization in general," he said. "Our employment levels are up around the world, but there are certain locations where we are obviously eliminating redundant positions, and in that population it would be down."
Medtronic has already closed 60 redundant offices worldwide, and more moves are expected in the coming year and a half, Ellis said.
Another commitment from the Covidien deal was Ishrak's promise of more investment in the U.S. because the move to Ireland would give Medtronic more flexibility to allocate overseas-held cash without facing U.S. repatriation taxes on the money. And indeed, news of proposed and completed deals has been piling up for the devicemaker, including two last month.
