Medtronic acquires Boulder-based hearing-aid maker Sophono

BOULDER – Medical device giant Medtronic plc (NYSE: MDT) announced this week that it has purchased Boulder-based Sophono Inc.

Terms of the deal were not announced.

Sophono makes hearing aids that work by using bone conduction. Rather than increasing volume and pushing air in the ear canal like normal hearing aids, Sophono’s device includes a magnet implanted under the skin behind a patient’s ear. The rest of the device attaches to the magnet outside the skin. When the device vibrates against the side of the head, it conducts sound through the skull to the inner ear.

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Reached by phone Friday afternoon, Sophono vice president of operations and finance Howard Vickers declined to comment on the deal or the impact on Sophono’s local operations, referring questions to Medtronic personnel. A Medtronic spokesperson could not be reached Friday.

Sophono early last year raised a little more than $1 million to ramp up marketing efforts. Vickers at that time told BizWest that the company’s annual revenue was about $5 million. The company’s devices are available in 42 countries and have been implanted in more than 4,000 patients.

Medtronic, headquartered in Minneapolis, already has a significant presence in Boulder County. It has 300 employees at its Louisville facility, plus another 1,800 employees at recently acquired Covidien’s Gunbarrel location.

A Medtronic press release said that the annualized earnings impact of the Sophono acquisition would not be material. Revenue from the Sophono devices will be reported as part of Medtronic’s Surgical Technologies division.