Covidien was formed in 2007 as a spin off of Tyco Healthcare.
Tyco had purchased the Kendall Company in 1994 to enter into healthcare. At that time, Kendall had become one of the world’s largest manufacturers of disposable medical supplies, wound care dressings, bandaging, elastic support and other vascular compression products.
In 1998, Tyco Healthcare acquired Sherwood, Davis & Geck, a manufacturer and distributor of disposable medical products, and United States Surgical Corporation (U.S. Surgical), which provided suture and auto suture devices, along with energy-based devices, through its Valleylab brand. And, in 2000, Tyco Healthcare added respiratory and monitoring products provider Nellcor Puritan Bennett through the acquisition of Mallinckrodt Inc.
In 2007, Covidien was formed when Tyco International spun off its health care business. Since that time, Covidien has made a number of acquisitions including VNUS Medical Technologies, Aspect Medical Systems, Somanetics, ev3, BÂRRX, Newport Medical Instruments, superDimension, Oridion Systems and Given Imaging.
By the end of 2014, Covidien was operating in more than 150 countries globally, with 39,000+ employees.
In January of 2015, Covidien was formally acquired by Medtronic.
