Siemens Pacesetter Inc

Siemens Pacesetter Inc., a Sylmar-based maker of cardiac pacemaking devices, said its new 103,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Sylmar has been cleared for operation by the Food and Drug Administration. Siemens said the new facility will enable the company to consolidate manufacturing and research and development operations that were divided among several buildings in Sylmar. Siemens, which employs 850 workers in Sylmar, also operates a facility in Sweden.

It's a case of having a pacemaker company in the right place. A Sylmar biomedical electronics company that "adopted" Sylmar High School last year has found itself in a good position to help the school's new math/science magnet get off the ground. Siemens Pacesetter Inc., a 900-employee German company that makes heart pacemakers, adopted Sylmar High last fall as part of the district's Adopt-a-School program. Now, the school and its adopter have more in common than ever.

It's a case of having a pacemaker company in the right place. A Sylmar biomedical electronics company that "adopted" Sylmar High School last year has found itself in a good position to help the school's new math/science magnet get off the ground. Siemens Pacesetter Inc., a 900-employee German company that makes heart pacemakers, adopted Sylmar High last fall as part of the district's Adopt-a-School program. Now, the school and its adopter have more in common than ever.

Siemens Pacesetter Inc., the Sylmar-based producer of cardiac pacemakers and other medical equipment, will be purchased for about $500 million by St. Jude Medical Inc., the world's leading maker of heart valves, the companies announced Tuesday. The deal will place St. Jude, based in St. Paul, Minn., in the top tier of pacing-device makers and will put both companies in a better position to compete in the rapidly changing health care industry, St. Jude Chief Executive Ronald A. Matricaria said.

Siemens Pacesetter Inc., the Sylmar-based producer of cardiac pacemakers and other medical equipment, will be purchased for about $500 million by St. Jude Medical Inc., the world's leading maker of heart valves, the companies announced Tuesday. The deal will place St. Jude, based in St. Paul, Minn., in the top tier of pacing-device makers and will put both companies in a better position to compete in the rapidly changing health care industry, St. Jude Chief Executive Ronald A. Matricaria said.

In the pacemaker business, there are two main providers to the U.S. market: industry leader Medtronic Inc. in Minneapolis, followed by Siemens Pacesetter Inc. in Sylmar. Together, they supply roughly 70% of the conventional pacemakers that bolster otherwise slow heartbeats. Now Medtronic is getting lots of attention for its new device that does something different--it calms fast heartbeats.

In mid-August, Siemens-Pacesetter Inc., a Sylmar manufacturer of heart pacemakers, got federal approval to start selling its latest pacemaker, the Synchrony. The device, which costs doctors $6,300, is the most sophisticated and expensive pacemaker Siemens-Pacesetter has yet designed. Chairman Alfred E. Mann believes that Synchrony will enable his company, the industry's No. 2 player with about 25% of the $1.

Siemens-Pacesetter, a Sylmar-based heart pacemaker company, said it plans to appeal a decision by a federal court in Illinois that it has infringed on a patent held by its chief competitor, Medtronic Inc. of Minneapolis. The court found last week that Siemens-Pacesetter, a unit of German electronics concern Siemens AG, had infringed on a Medtronic patent for a technology that uses signals from the body to control the rate of pacesetters.

A four-year patent infringement battle over cardiac pacemakers between Medtronic Inc. and Siemens AG has ended with Siemens agreeing to pay more than $300 million over 10 years to settle the lawsuits. The German industrial giant Siemens produces pacemakers, which stimulate sluggish heartbeats, through its Siemens Pacesetter Inc. unit in Sylmar. Medtronic, the world's leading pacemaker concern, is based in Minneapolis.

In the pacemaker business, there are two main providers to the U.S. market: industry leader Medtronic Inc. in Minneapolis, followed by Siemens Pacesetter Inc. in Sylmar. Together, they supply roughly 70% of the conventional pacemakers that bolster otherwise slow heartbeats. Now Medtronic is getting lots of attention for its new device that does something different--it calms fast heartbeats.

Siemens Pacesetter Inc., a Sylmar-based maker of cardiac pacemaking devices, said its new 103,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Sylmar has been cleared for operation by the Food and Drug Administration. Siemens said the new facility will enable the company to consolidate manufacturing and research and development operations that were divided among several buildings in Sylmar. Siemens, which employs 850 workers in Sylmar, also operates a facility in Sweden.

Siemens-Pacesetter, a Sylmar-based heart pacemaker company, said it plans to appeal a decision by a federal court in Illinois that it has infringed on a patent held by its chief competitor, Medtronic Inc. of Minneapolis. The court found last week that Siemens-Pacesetter, a unit of German electronics concern Siemens AG, had infringed on a Medtronic patent for a technology that uses signals from the body to control the rate of pacesetters.

In mid-August, Siemens-Pacesetter Inc., a Sylmar manufacturer of heart pacemakers, got federal approval to start selling its latest pacemaker, the Synchrony. The device, which costs doctors $6,300, is the most sophisticated and expensive pacemaker Siemens-Pacesetter has yet designed. Chairman Alfred E. Mann believes that Synchrony will enable his company, the industry's No. 2 player with about 25% of the $1.

Pacific Financial Group has sold its interest in Century City's ABC Entertainment Center to an investment group led by City Center Group partners Juri Ripinsky and Malcolm Kingston for about $55 million, local brokers report. ABC Entertainment Center Associates acquired an exclusive leasehold interest in the 580,000-square-foot complex for a term set to expire in a little more than 12 years.

What do designer dog food dishes, fetal monitoring systems and Teddy Ruxpin have in common? A tiny industrial design firm based in Canoga Park, RKS Design. Founded in 1980 by former Xerox Corp. designer Ravi Sawhney, 37, RKS has worked for such big corporations as Rubbermaid Inc. and Sega of America, as well as entrepreneurs in fields ranging from health care to virtual-reality arcade games. With just $1.