CoreLink Acquires Expanding Orthopedics, Inc.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–CoreLink, LLC (“CoreLink”), a portfolio company of The Stephens Group, LLC, has acquired the assets of Expanding Orthopedics, Inc. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Expanding Orthopedics, founded in 2001, develops and commercializes innovative expandable devices for minimally invasive spine surgery. Along with the FDA-cleared expanding and articulating FLXfit™ and FLXfit 15™ titanium interbody systems, CoreLink has also acquired a broad array of additional patents and in-development products addressing the rapidly growing expandable interbody and spinal fusion market. CoreLink will provide enhanced support for existing users of both the FLXfit and FLXfit 15 systems, while utilizing its unique vertical integration to quickly incorporate system upgrades for a full commercial re-launch in Q3 2018.

“The acquisition of Expanding Orthopedics allows us to better serve our customers’ needs by adding important product lines and intellectual property in the fastest growing categories within the spine market. We look forward to supporting Expanding Orthopedics’ existing customer base with CoreLink’s broader product offering and leading sales, training, distribution and manufacturing infrastructure, and we’re particularly excited to introduce these new product lines to CoreLink’s customers,” said Jay Bartling, founder and CEO of CoreLink.

Clay Hunter, Managing Director at The Stephens Group, added, “We are very pleased to support CoreLink in this first complementary acquisition which adds a high-growth product line to CoreLink’s already broad portfolio. Jay and his team are great partners, and we look forward to continuing to support their efforts to build the leading vertically integrated manufacturer and distributor of highly engineered spinal implants and instrumentation.”

ABOUT CORELINK, LLC
Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, CoreLink is a leading provider of medical devices, primarily highly engineered spinal implants and instrumentation. The company employs both traditional precision manufacturing and additive manufacturing techniques to produce and sell a broad and growing line of pedicle screw systems, interbody spacers, plates, biologics and surgical instruments through a network of distributors and independent sales representatives as well as its internal salesforce to hospitals, surgery centers and other healthcare providers.

ABOUT THE STEPHENS GROUP, LLC
The Stephens Group is a private, family-owned firm investing its capital in companies with exceptional management teams and high returns on invested capital in growing industries. The Stephens Group has a long history of successfully investing in both minority and control positions across multiple industries. The Stephens Group, through its affiliates, has or has had significant investments in industrial products and services, healthcare, specialty distribution, telecom, media and technology, communications, financial services, consumer and specialty retail, energy services and gas exploration and production and other industries.