Medical device maker Teleflex to buy Vascular Solutions for $1 billion

Teleflex Inc said it agreed to buy fellow medical device maker Vascular Solutions Inc for about $1 billion.

Teleflex's offer of $56 per Vascular share in cash represents a premium of 1.6 percent to the stock's Thursday close.

The deal comes about 10 months after Vascular Solutions and its founder CEO, Howard Root, were found not guilty in a criminal prosecution related to alleged "off-label" promotion of its varicose veins treatment, Vari-Lase Short Kit.

Shares of the company, which makes devices for minimally invasive coronary and vascular procedures, have nearly doubled since Root was exonerated in February.

"Following the jury verdict in February ... I am not willing to assume much longer the personal risk associated with being the CEO of a public medical device company," Root said on Friday.

Teleflex makes devices used in surgery, cardiac, respiratory and emergency care.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of next year and add to Teleflex's adjusted earnings in 2017.

Guggenheim Securities was the financial adviser to Vascular Solutions, while Dorsey & Whitney provided legal counsel.

J.P. Morgan Securities advised Teleflex, while Simpson Thacher & Bartlett was legal counsel.