Globe Tool & Manufacturing acquired by battery maker - Business First of Buffalo:

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, based in Clarence, N.Y., acquiresd Globe from of Westport, Conn. for aboutf $48 million in cash and the assumptiojof $9 million in debt, according to a pressx release from Greatbatch. Both companies are suppliers to medical-devicwe manufacturing giants suchas Indianapolis-based Guidant Corp., Littlw Canada-based St. Jude Medical Inc. and Fridley-basedr Medtronic Inc. Greatbatch, which had about $140 million in sales last supplies batteries for defibrillators and pacemakers and othefrcardiac rhythm-management devices. It was foundexd in 1970 and went publicvin 2000.
Tim Knapp, president of said it will be business as usualpat Globe's plant, where there are about 210 Greatbatch is planning to bring in its own management for the facilith at the end of the year, Knapp said. Globe has been growing steadiluy since Charter Oak Partners bought it in 1992 from foundedBob Dahlheimer. Over the past five years, the company has double d its annual salesto $20 million, Knapp said. Besidesa supplying four to seven components in theaveragee pacemaker, Globe also makes implantablew pumps. About 80 percent of Globe's business is medical-device but it also supplies precision manufacturinvg parts to theaerospacde industry.
Charter Oak decided to sell the companyy as a matter of regular Knapp said. "That's what private investment companies he said. "They owned this one for approximately10 years, whicbh is a fairly long period of time for companies of that type to hold on to a businessx like this." The acquisitionn allows Greatbatch to be closer to its majort customers, said analyst Keay Nakae at Los Angeles-based Wedbusjh Morgan Securities. It gives Greatbatch more local people on the ground in whereit doesn't have its own saled representatives, Nakae said. The Globd acquisition fits with Greatbatch's strategy of expanding its focus by acquiringg smallprofitable companies.
Nakae rates Greatbatch' stock a "buy," his highest rating.