The day after completing its latest billion-dollar deal, Boston Scientific dispatched food trucks to hand out fried chicken sandwiches and burritos to Silk Road Medical employees in California and Minnesota, before holding a town hall-style meeting to welcome them into the fold.
That September day was a big one for the teams at Silk Road, which makes stroke-prevention devices. But deals like this are a regular occurrence for Boston Scientific, and the Marlborough company has the process down to, well, a science. During chief executive Mike Mahoney’s 12-year tenure, Boston Scientific has completed more than 40 acquisitions, helping turn the medical device maker into one of Massachusetts’ most valuable companies.
This might be surprising considering the damage caused by its bet-the-farm, $27 billion deal in 2006 for pacemaker company Guidant, which sealed a victory in its bidding war against the larger Johnson & Johnson. That infamous merger saddled Boston Scientific with billions in debt and liabilities related to problems with Guidant’s devices.
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