J&J is a holding company - inorganic growth vs. organic. Meaning, JNJ simply buy outside assets (good and bad), use them through their lifecycle and then dispose to buy new outside assets. They are lucky to make a good purchase decision that will be a #1 or #2, but more often than not, it is fools gold. In medtech, it appears that Abiomed and Shockwave are very good purchases. The true value of JNJ is brand and a commercial operation that can be leveraged for smaller to mid size companies that don't have the funding or the capability to fully expand their products and services like JNJ is capable. The problem that I see from all the recent outside purchases, is that their credit rating is starting to come into question due to all the debt that they are racking up. As such, their capital "powder" is running dry to make more acquisitions as their stock suffers (which hurts stock transaction purchases) and backs them into a corner (or limits) on new opportunities. In this company, it is better to be an attorney, sales (depending on segment) rather than R&D.
