Devilbiss Health Care

Sunrise Medical of Torrance has agreed to acquire DeVilbiss Health Care, a fast-growing maker of home respiratory devices, in a deal valued at $130 million, Sunrise announced Wednesday. Sunrise, which makes wheelchairs, hospital beds and other rehabilitative equipment, said it would be the largest-ever transaction in the home care manufacturing industry.

Sunrise Medical of Torrance has agreed to acquire DeVilbiss Health Care, a fast-growing maker of home respiratory devices, in a deal valued at $130 million, Sunrise announced Wednesday. Sunrise, which makes wheelchairs, hospital beds and other rehabilitative equipment, said it would be the largest-ever transaction in the home care manufacturing industry.

Sunrise Medical Inc. said it fired 170 employees and will fire 80 more as it consolidates its five North American home care divisions into a single unit. The maker of hospital, home care and rehabilitation products also released fiscal second-quarter earnings that failed to meet analysts' expectations. The company said it will incur $4 million in costs over the next six quarters to complete the consolidation.

Having successfully completed the arduous task of converting the company to for-profit status, officials of Health Net until recently figured they could relax a bit. The conversion, they reasoned, assured the big health maintenance organization's position among the major players in the state's health care industry.

Tethered to 50 feet of plastic tubing that supplies oxygen to his tiny nostrils, 16-month-old Travis Brown resembles many infants hospitalized with hyaline membrane disease--a life-threatening lung ailment. Beside his bed is a cluster of machinery that sustains Travis, who was born three months premature: a suction machine to remove secretions, a medication compensator, a heart and lung monitor and a large oxygen tank--devices to be found in any well-equipped hospital.