October 17, 2014 by Brian Johnson
Stryker says Mako Surgical’s sales are not as strong as hoped for when the orthopedics giant spent $1.7 billion on the robot-assisted surgery firm last year.
Stryker (NYSE:SYK) officials said this week that the company is still trying to overcome hurdles integrating Mako Surgical into its existing sales force, resulting in some lackluster performance for surgical robotics firm Stryker paid $1.7 billion for last year.
During an earnings call Stryker vice president of strategy Katherine Owen said the Mako integration process has been challenging and suggested executives may have been overly optimistic in their earlier assessments about how quick their hospital customer’s would adopt the technology.
“I think it’s fair to say we underestimated the complexity of it, but feel very comfortable with the trajectory we are on,” Owen said. “It’s just integrating a capital sales force alongside a very large implant sales force, and going through the necessary training and coordination that has to take place in existing accounts. So it’s nothing truly unique, it’s just that it’s a big job to do, given how large our sales force is. So we are making really good headway, very excited about the pipeline we are seeing and our ability to continue to drive sequential acceleration in robot sales.”
During the 3rd quarter, Stryker posted profits of $57 million, or 16¢ per share, on sales of $2.39 billion for the 3 months ended Sept. 27.
