Medtronic to acquire Affera, a cardiac arrhythmia technology firm, for $925 million

Medtronic is acquiring Affera Inc., a medical technology company focused on treating cardiac arrhythmias, for $925 million.

While Medtronic declined Monday to share the sale price, analysts at Piper Sandler disclosed terms of the deal, which includes $250 million that's contingent upon Affera receiving U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its nascent technology.

Boston area-based Affera makes cardiac mapping and navigation systems and catheter-based cardiac ablation technologies.

Medtronic, which has its operational headquarters in Fridley, already holds a 3% share in Affera. It made that investment less than a year ago, a Medtronic spokeswoman said.

The deal is not expected to close until the first half of Medtronic's fiscal year 2023, which begins May 1.

While Affera is an early-stage company with technologies not yet approved for commercial use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it's not new to medtech investors. The company just closed a $75 million Series C financing round in December, which included large investors like Boston-based Bain Capital Life Sciences.

"The deal represents a pretty sizable splash in the high-growth cardiac ablation market," Matt O'Brien, senior analyst with Piper Sandler, wrote in a note Monday. "While the transaction will no doubt raise some questions about (Medtronic's) ongoing study with (pulsed-field ablation), it emphasized that the transaction was really designed to close a product gap on the mapping side."

Medtronic views Affera's product as complementary to its own, O'Brien said.

Affera recently celebrated the first patient to be treated with its technology in New York. Last month, the company announced that it had received FDA approval to begin a randomized trial of its device, Sphere PerAF, for treating persistent atrial fibrillation.

Cardiovascular products accounted for 35.7% of Medtronic's sales in its latest full fiscal year. In 2019, the medtech giant acquired Epix Therapeutics, maker of a catheter-based ablation system for arrhythmia patients.

Affera's founder and chief executive Doron Harlev is experienced in this space. Harlev previously co-founded Rhythmia Medical that was acquired by Boston Scientific Corp. in 2012.

"This acquisition directly aligns with our vision of delivering novel solutions to address the rapidly growing demands for cardiac arrhythmia treatment," Harlev said in a news release. "We are excited to focus on the integration of our technology with Medtronic and are confident that together we can increase patient access to ablation therapies."

Medtronic's stock rose less than half a percent in Monday trading.