Medtronic Buys Pair of Heart Valve Makers for $1B

Medtronic Inc., the world’s second-biggest maker of medical devices, agreed to pay about $1 billion for two makers of heart valves, which don’t require chest-splitting surgery.

Medtronic will purchase CoreValve Inc. for $700 million, and additional payments if its technology meets its goals, and Ventor Technologies Ltd. for $325 million, according to the Minneapolis, Minn.-based device maker.

The deals increase Medtronic’s presence in the market for heart valves installed on the tip of flexible tubes threaded through blood vessels. The devices may help as many as 300,000 patients too frail for open-heart surgery, Medtronic officials said. CoreValve and Edwards Lifesciences Corp., both headquartered in Irvine, Calif., are the only sellers of the valves.