A deal is reached! The "King of Hard Mirrors" spends 600 million to acquire surgical robots!

Recently, surgical robot company Asensus Surgical Inc. announced that it has reached a final merger agreement with world-renowned medical device manufacturer Karl Storz.

According to the merger agreement, Karl Storz will purchase all the issued and outstanding shares of Asensus at a price of $0.35 per share, totaling $95.2 million (about RMB 690 million). Although the price is very cheap, it is still a 67% premium over Asensus' closing price on April 2 and a 52% premium over the closing price on the last trading day before the announcement.

For Asensus, which has been suffering from long-term losses and capital shortages, this "sale money" is also a "timely rain" that will help it get rid of the shadow of broken capital chain. Anthony Fernando, president and CEO of Asensus Surgical, said frankly that this transaction has brought the company's shareholders the greatest value. This will also enable the company to enter a "new chapter" and continue to provide accurate, safe and predictable surgical robots and digital tools to patients and doctors around the world.

As a reward, Karl Storz successfully entered the new niche of surgical robots. Although this old endoscope manufacturer has also made some layouts in the field of robotic surgery, it is mainly concentrated in peripheral areas and has not yet fully entered the field of soft tissue surgery. Therefore, the sale of Asensus is undoubtedly "just what they want."

For the general public, Karl Storz and Asensus may sound a little unfamiliar. However, when the two titles of "King of Hard Mirror" and "Da Vinci Killer" are mentioned, it may evoke many memories.

As a "veteran powerhouse" in the field of endoscopy, Germany's Karl Storz is one of the world's largest endoscope manufacturers and a household name in the field of medical equipment.

Today, this company, founded in 1945, has grown into a multinational medical device giant with more than 9,400 employees and operations in more than 40 countries. Its preliminary sales revenue for fiscal year 2023 reached 2.17 billion euros (about 17 billion yuan). Its product line includes more than 13,000 different instruments for human and veterinary diagnosis and treatment. It is truly the "King of Hard Mirrors".

Asensus, a surgical robotics company headquartered in North Carolina, has more than 200 employees and more than 300 surgeons who have performed more than 10,000 operations using its technology, but the company has been losing money for many years.

Its Senhance system adopts a multi-port design and can support up to 4 robotic arms. It not only has the basic functions of traditional surgical robots, but also integrates functions such as tactile feedback and eye tracking view control. It is also the only digital laparoscopic surgery system approved by the FDA.

The outside world had high hopes for the Senhance system, hoping that it could end the dominance of the surgical robot overlord Da Vinci, so it was also called the "Da Vinci killer." Unfortunately, due to various reasons, the commercialization process of the Senhance system is quite slow, and the actual sales are far from catching up with Da Vinci. Last year, Asensus' annual revenue was only US$8.6 million, and its cash reserves were only US$21 million.

Now, the acquisition by Karl Storz may help Senhance Systems to regain a foothold in the market.

KARL STORZ has advanced endoscopic and robotic technologies and strong commercialization capabilities around the world, while Asensus is also actively promoting the development of the next-generation Luna soft tissue surgical robot platform and is expected to develop deeper cooperation with the VentureOne robotics division of KARL STORZ.

It is reported that the Luna platform will introduce a digital human-machine interface between surgeons and surgical robot consoles for the first time, making robot-assisted surgery more intelligent. The platform will also be equipped with advanced minimally invasive surgical instruments and clinical intelligent tools. Previously, Asensus also reached a cooperation agreement with NVIDIA to further develop visual functions.

In fact, in recent years, more and more traditional medical giants have been expanding their boundaries and acquiring these new forces in robotic medical care that represent the future development direction.

Currently, medical robot technology is developing from a single surgical robot to intelligent and digital, which will greatly improve the accuracy and safety of surgery. However, due to factors such as the wide range of technical fields involved, long development cycles, and huge R&D investment, it is difficult for a single startup to fully control the various cutting-edge technologies required.

Therefore, instead of making a comprehensive layout on their own, it is better to "go deep" into those innovative companies that are leading in the subdivided fields and achieve rapid breakthroughs through integration. This is also the main motivation for traditional medical giants to invest in or acquire new forces in robotic medical care.

However, for the new robotic medical companies that have been integrated, while solving urgent problems such as funding shortages, they are also facing new challenges. How to maintain innovation vitality after integration, avoid being assimilated by large groups, and make full use of the resources of large groups to achieve technology industrialization are all issues that need special attention.

This is also a problem that all parties need to face and solve together in the future.

In general, surgical robots are currently entering a new stage of competition, and different routes and technical paths will start a fierce competition in the future. Who will be the "new king" who rewrites the landscape of surgical robots? Let's look forward to it together.