Aspen surgical

Discussion in 'Hill-Rom' started by Anonymous, Jul 26, 2012 at 8:03 AM.

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  1. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Why did they purchase aspen?
     

  2. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    No clue, it is completely outside of their core scope. Makes me question leadership when they spend 400M on a small margin business dominated by monster size companies.
     
  3. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Apparently you didn't read the businesswires at all. They are pretty healthy with margins and from what it looks like on their website, they have some pretty recognizable products like Bard-Parker. That's gotta be number one in scalpel blades. Plus I see their skin markers all over the place.
    It's easy-- beds have become so commoditized that the margins are eroding and hospitals aren't buying like they used to. Remember when it was unheard of to wait more than 7 years to buy stretchers? Good luck with that. And as long as the welds are holding up on the beds, who cares how much rust is on it, they ain't buying new ones. Capital is a beast right now.
    Well, so why not grab up a very healthy company that only sells disposables (from what I can tell)? Allows you to fly under the radar when Obama and his goons get this healthcare bill fully enacted and hospitals constrict their capital budgets even more. Far better than buying an implant company right now.
    Try looking further than tomorrow and maybe you'll get the picture.
     
  4. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I did not have to read the wires to know that this is a mistake. Every product Aspen sells is a commodity to the nth degree. Margins on disposables are even worse than DME. Never mind the fact that this entire company is way outside of the core competencies of Hill-Rom who's focus has always been on capital equipment. Couple that with the fact that Aspen is competing with giant companies that make Stryker look like a docile house cat and I see this fizzing out after a few years. Plus Hill-Rom typically does not have the patients for low margin businesses. The 400MM could have been much better spent on a complementary product to either the bed or IT business units.
     
  5. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Are they putting this in the bed reps bag? Good luck with that, have fun trying to sell safety scalples to a hospital ( about 10X more expensive than a regular scalpel) and have fun with 3 week trials at a hospital sitting in an OR with a surgeon who hates you. Do you really think a capital rep is going to spend the time it takes to flip an account on something that has really low commish?
     
  6. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Did the stock lose value due to the miss on earnings or this acquisition? The sellers made 4x their investment. If there is any good news, it is that the service organization shouldn't get their hands on this to screw it up like they did the MEMS acquisition. Probably just another crony of JG being handed a pocketful of money!
     
  7. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Stupid, desperate move. Figures.............
     
  8. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Uh, since you didn't read you're just assuming. Also, name one 'giant' company they compete with.
     
  9. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Aspen rep here.
    Would also like to know who you are referring to as our giant competitors. Would prove you know something about our company and business model.
    Also, for the poster wondering about the stock dip, that was completely Q3 results. Our margins and profitability were viewed as assets, not additional debt. Read the WSJ article and you'll see that.
     
  10. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Ummm, let's see. Other than for the scalpels, the competitors in order are 1. Covidien, 2. Cardinal and 3. Medline, to name a few. All kinda big. Good luck.
     
  11. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Ummmm, let's see. Cardinal is our number one customer, 3. Medline is a top 5 customer and Owens&Minor is #2. Covidien only competes with us for skin markers and we are outselling them.
    All kinda by and all kinda partner with us heavily.
    Way too show how much you know.
     
  12. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Ha. Dumbass.
     
  13. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    A strange one this? Checking out Aspen Surgical I didn't realize that they also have acquired Aspen Medical Europe ltd which is based in UK, they make needles which could fall under Hill-roms so called new surgical portfolio but they predominantly Specialize in wound care dressings. What’s that all about? There has been no mention of Aspen Medical Europe ltd yet it was acquired as part of the Aspen Surgical purchase. Is Hill-Rom heading into the wound care market?
     
  14. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Hmmm, surgical lite covers, anti fog, and many other things compete,, you idiot. And covidien is by far the mkt leader in that space. We used to lose to them while i was with xodus. Thank god I am now in a device sale.

    Uhhhh, I can't stand sales reps acting like they no something beyond there little territory.
     
  15. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Good to see that our aspen friends are visiting our board already. It's easy to see that most of the aspen reps came out of pharma so they know where to come! Welcome aboard.
     
  16. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Seriously.....Everyone knows that Hill-Rom has a lot of problems and needed the sales expertise that we can provide at Aspen. Hill-Rom sales people aren't exactly viewed as the best in the industry. My RM told me last week that it wouldn't surprise him if Aspen managers will be running Hill-Rom in a couple of years.
     
  17. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I am Hill-Rom and agree 110%. Our sales reps have turned into used car salesmen, and not very good ones. Some new ideas and viewpoints could be refreshing.
     
  18. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Most HR reps, especially the old ones, are arrogant wantabees. They view the facility as "theirs" and don't want or ask for help. The accounts that like them (few) are solid. BUT the accounts that open their eyes can run the HR reps into the ground. If the rep can't bully the account, they lose.
     
  19. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I will take the older, tenured reps every day of the week over the new, (I don't have a clue what I'm trying to sell reps.) It used to mean something when something was sold. Now its just a number to make, makes no difference if thats what the customer needs or not. Always swinging for the fence, you lose credibility fast, and lose the customers loyalty. See it every single day.
     
  20. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Sounds like your RM is having too many wet dreams. You statement only shows how naive you are about the true magnitude of the problems, the least of which is the sales force. There is very little wrong with the sales force, not saying there is not some dead weight, but no more than I have seen at any other company. The real problem here, is a lack of leadership that really understands what we need to be an innovative company and not just a commodity manufacturer. Leadership seems to be distracted by all of these small acquisitions, that by the way do nothing to fix the problems with the core business. There are some fantastic complementary companies out there that could change the game for Hill-Rom and yet they focus on these incrementally additive acquisitions. Not to mention the fact that they could develop 2 or 3 new game changer beds with 400MM bucks. This reeks of Mediq all over again.