Guidant accepts J&J offer

Guidant on the night of Friday, January 13, 2006 accepted a "definitive" offer of $71 a share, or $24.2bn, from Johnson & Johnson in the latest twist in the two-way bid battle with Boston Scientific for the US heart devicemaker.

J&J's offer was raised for a second time this week, but is still at a 3 per cent discount to the $25.5bn tabled by Boston on Thursday.