J&J takes off the gloves

Now that the Federal Trade Commission has given tentative approval to J&J acquisition of Guidant, J&J is getting tough on price. The original deal valued Guidant at $76 --but with Guidant's recent quality problems J&J only wants to pay around $61 or $62, according to the Wall St. Journal. Guidant wants $67 or $68. J&J is now saying the deal might not happen at all.Post-merger integration is rarely easy. If this deal goes through, bad blood between the sides could still make the combination a failure. See here and here for recent Health business blog posts on this topic.