STJ ST. Jude Medical, Inc.

   By Chelsey Dulaney 
 

St. Jude Medical Inc. has reached a deal to buy Thoratec Corp. for $3.4 billion in cash, a move to boost its position in the heart-failure device business.

The offer of $63.50 a share is a 10% premium to Thoratec's closing price on Tuesday and a 35.4% premium to Thoratec's closing price on July 17, before rumors of a deal pushed the stock higher.

Thoratec's heat failure devices would allow St. Jude representatives to leverage their calls on heart failure specialists, analysts say. St. Jude made heart failure a key focus after its remote patient monitoring system CardioMEMS gained U.S. approval in 2014. St. Jude has said it expects revenue from the device to exceed $70 million this year.

Write to Chelsey Dulaney at chelsey.dulaney@wsj.com

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