Stryker (SYK) has been pretty active since the beginning of this year.

On January 3, it announced the acquisition of the neurovascular division of the Boston Scientific, the global leader in the $900 million neurovascular market worldwide, including products used for the minimally invasive treatment of hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke.

On June 28, Stryker completed the acquisition of Orthovita Inc., a leading orthobiologic and biosurgery products developer and manufacturer.

On July 6, Stryker bought privately-held Memometal Technologies. This is what Stephen P. MacMillan, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Stryker, was heard saying.

"The acquisition of Memometal provides Stryker with the platform to further establish our company as a key player in the rapidly growing foot and hand segment of the extremities market and creates a strong presence in the podiatric surgery market."

It seems the company is all set to make its presence in the biosurgery market. And

Merger activity increased last week with four new deals announced and twelve closing.

You can find all the active deals listed below in our Merger Arbitrage Tool that automatically updates itself during market hours.

Deal Statistics:

New Deals:

1. The acquisition of Servidyne (SERV) by Scientific Conservation for $13 million or $3.50 per share in cash.
2. The acquisition of Continucare (CNU) by Metropolitan Health Networks (MDF) for $416 million in a cash and stock transaction, where shareholders of Continucare will receive $6.25 per share in cash, and 0.0414 of a share of Metropolitan common stock for each share of Continucare common stock. The exact value of the consideration per share will depend

Merger activity increased last week with five new deals announced and seven closing.

You can find all the active deals listed below in our Merger Arbitrage Tool that automatically updates itself during market hours.

Deal Statistics:

New Deals:

1. The acquisition of Integral Systems (ISYS) by Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (KTOS) for $266 million in a cash plus stock deal, where where each Integral Systems share will be converted into $5.00 in cash and 0.588 of a share of Kratos common stock.
2. The acquisition of Orthovita (VITA) by Stryker Corporation (SYK) for $316 million or $3.85 per share in cash.
3. The acquisition of PRIMEDIA (PRM) by TPG Capital

Medical technology giant Stryker Corp (SYK) has struck a definitive agreement to acquire orthobiologic and biosurgery products maker Orthovita Inc (VITA) for $316 million in cash. The transaction has been cleared by the Boards of both companies.

Under the deal, shareholders of Orthovita will receive $3.85 for each share they hold. This represents roughly 41% premium over Orthovita's closing price of $2.73 on May 13. The deal value (of $316 million) includes the assumption of $12 million in Orthovita debt. Shares of Orthovita gained $1.09 (or 39.9%) touching $3.82 in early trading on May 16.

Orthovita's Board has recommended the company's shareholders to tender their shares. Shareholders holding roughly 14.5% of Orthovita's outstanding shares have already committed to tender their shares. The tender offer is slated to commence within 10 business days and is expected to close in second-quarter 2011.

The deal is subject to customary closing conditions including the

Q1 2010 Earnings Call

May 4, 2010 8:30 am ET

Executives

Tony Koblish - President and CEO

Nancy Broadbent - CFO

Analysts

Vivian Cervantes - Maxim Group

Dave Turkaly - Susquehanna Financial Group

Matt Dolan - Roth Capital Partners

Bill Plovanic - Canaccord Adams

Michael Matson - Wells Fargo Securities

James Sidoti - Sidoti & Company

Graham Tenneco

Operator

Good morning, my name is Emily and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the First Quarter 2010 Financial Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions). Thank you.

I would now turn the call over to Tony Koblish, President and CEO. Sir, you may begin your conference.

Tony Koblish

Thank you, Emily. Good morning and welcome to Orthovita's

At the end of each trading week, Hillbent scans for the equity market for potential anomalies which exhibit extremely oversold and overbought conditions. Past observations have revealed that such candidates may experience reversal corrections to the upside or downside once the market reconfirms that their fundamentals remain solidly intact or relatively poor. From a contrarian perspective, these lists may also serve as a precursor to changes in institutional sentiment and underlying fundamentals.

(The purpose of this report is not to provide specific recommendations, but instead serve as a time-saving reference tool and starting point for investment ideas as the upcoming trading week unfolds. Of course, the results generated are not always perfect and users are strongly encouraged to perform their own due diligence on these names. Note that overbought and oversold conditions are based upon proprietary algorithms and quantitative models instead of conventional technical analysis indicators. As a supplement to

At the end of each trading week, our market direction radar scans the Hillbent 3000 universe (minimun average daily volume of 100k and largest 3000 market capitalization stocks) for the top 3 and bottom 3 sectors based upon aggregate performance and analyzes their winners and losers.

Once again, the market found itself in a tug of war as investors tried to find some good news-- and for some BioMed investors the day became a matter of finding out what the good news was to begin with. That's the story as we check in as markets close on Tuesday.

Shares of Sequenom, Inc. (SQNM) started to rise mid-morning and they didn't stopped. The question is, why? A mid-day glance at our exploding e-mail box told us that traders were scratching their heads, since no hard news items could be credited with the rise of the badly beaten Sequenom shares. There were no filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and calls to Sequenom were not immediately returned.

The last favorable news was a report issued by Lazard Capital Markets at the end of May. The stock jumped a bit after Sean Lavin upgraded it to "hold"

Orthovita (VITA) is a stock on the move as shares have gained 35% in the past two weeks and shares volume has exploded to more than 4 million weekly shares

Below is a summary of updates to the BioMedReports.com database of 246 entries included in the FDA and Clinical Trial Calendars ..

The FDA Calendar includes companies with pending new drug, biological agent, or medical device new product decisions at the FDA sorted by their PDUFA deadline dates. The entries are updated on a daily basis as new information becomes available with a total of 110 entries through 4/1/09. The FDA Calendar includes the following information: company name, ticker, decision date, and description.

The Clinical Trial Calendar includes 136 entries through 4/1/09 and encompasses pending clinical trial results (with a focus on late-stage, Phase 3 trials), pending new submissions to the FDA (e.g. NDA, BLA, 510k, PMA, sNDA, sBLA filings), and pending re-submissions to the FDA for complete response rulings by the agency which require more information before an approval can be granted.

1.) Sepracor (SEPR): On 4/1/09 SEPR filed

We screened through all the top performing industries looking for companies that might be potential buy candidates. We found just one that interests us, Orthovita Corporation (VITA).

Orthovita is a spine and orthopedic biosurgery company with proprietary biomaterials and biologic technologies for the development and commercialization of synthetic, biologically active, tissue engineering products. It develops and markets synthetic-based biomaterials products for use in spine surgery, the repair of fractures and a broad range of clinical needs in the trauma, joint reconstruction, revision and extremities markets.

Despite the economic freefall, VITA’s sales are headed in the right direction. For its third quarter, sales increased 42% to $20.6 million as compared to $14.5 million for Q3 2007. In fact, the 3rd quarter sales were up 7% versus the second quarter of ’08. Year-to-date, VITA’s 2008 sales increased 32% to $56.1 million as compared to $42.5 million for the same period in 2007.