Being reported in the WSJ today: http://online.wsj.com/articles/medtronic-covidien-in-advanced-talks-to-combine-1402760148?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories It reads as Medtronic doing this, for "inversion", which is the practice of a US company buying a foreign company for the main purpose of having their tax domicile outside of the US. In this case, they are interested in Covidien being legally HQ'd in Ireland with their 12.5% corporate tax rate compared to the US's 35%. This also allows for Medtronic to tap into their roughly $14 billion in cash sitting overseas with bringing it to the US and face the US tax on those international earnings. This total deal is valued at $40 billion, could be announced Monday, but with the possibility that it could fall through still Way too early to tell, but how will this affect the company's offices in Mansfield? Will this lead to consolidation and cut-backs in Mansfield? If so, that would be economically devastating to the southern MA economy.I think about 1,500-1,800 people are employed there a the HQ?
