Dive Brief:
- Avanos Medical has accepted a $1.27 billion go-private offer from American Industrial Partners, the company said Tuesday.
- AIP agreed to pay a 72.1% premium to Avanos’ closing stock price on Monday. Avanos CEO Dave Pacitti told customers that AIP will back his company to strengthen its competitive position.
- Avanos competes with businesses including Boston Scientific and Cook Medical for the specialty nutrition market, and rivals such as Medtronic and Stryker in the pain management space.
Dive Insight:
Avanos reported net sales of $701.2 million in 2025, up 1.9% on the prior year, and has forecast net sales of between $700 million and $720 million in 2026. Pacitti told Avanos employees that the company is on track to deliver $1 billion in revenue by 2030.
The specialty nutrition systems business, which sells enteral, neonatal and pediatric feeding products, is the largest and fastest-growing part of the company, generating net sales of $432.9 million at a 9.2% growth rate last year. Pain sales totaled $237.8 million in 2025, growing by 1.5%.
Pacitti has changed Avanos’ portfolio since becoming CEO one year ago. Avanos struck a deal to sell its hyaluronic acid product line in July and agreed to offload its U.S. orthopedic rental business in October. The company eliminated two senior positions as part of a restructuring in December.
Avanos moved to strengthen its specialty nutrition systems business by acquiring Nexus Medical, which sells an anti-reflux needleless connector technology, for $27 million upfront and up to $20 million tied to net sales growth.
The company has “taken deliberate steps to become a more focused medical technology organization, leaning into the categories where we can deliver the most clinical value,” Pacitti said in a statement about the AIP takeover. Accepting the AIP offer will help Avanos advance its innovation roadmap and strengthen its competitive position with enhanced flexibility and resources, the CEO added.
Pacitti told Avanos employees that their roles, responsibilities and day-to-day work remain the same. The company’s commitment to job security remains strong, Pacitti said. Avanos reduced its headcount from 4,555 at the end of 2021 to 2,287 at the end of last year. Over that period, the company combined its chronic care and pain management units, sold its respiratory health division and took steps to cut costs.
The deal is one of several go-private medtech takeovers struck in recent years. Blackstone and TPG closed their $18.3 billion deal to take Hologic private this month. GTCR took Surmodics private in a $627 million deal in November after overcoming a regulatory challenge to the takeover. Agiliti went private in a $2.5 billion deal in 2024, the same year that Carlyle Group inked a $3.8 billion buyout of a Baxter unit.
