Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) entered into a definitive agreement to acquire St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE:STJ) for $24.3 billion on April 26, 2016. Under the terms of the agreement, St. Jude Medical shareholders including restricted stockholders will receive $46.75 in cash and 0.8708 shares of Abbott common stock, representing total consideration of approximately $85 per share. St. Jude Medical’s net debt of approximately $5.7 billion will be assumed or refinanced by Abbott. Abbott intends to fund the cash portion of this transaction with medium- and long-term debt. On April 27, 2016, in connection with the execution of the merger agreement, Abbott entered into a commitment letter with Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated and Bank of America, N.A., pursuant to which Bank of America has committed to provide, subject to the terms and conditions of the commitment letter, up to $17.2 billion of senior unsecured bridge loans. St. Jude Medical Inc. shall pay, by wire transfer of immediately available funds, to Abbott Laboratories the termination fees of $685 million. The transaction is subject to the approval of St. Jude Medical shareholders, the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including specified regulatory approvals, approval for listing on the NYSE of the Abbott shares, effectiveness of the SEC registration statement to register the offering of Abbott shares as part of the merger consideration and the expiration of the waiting period applicable to the Mergers under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended, and receipt of other specified antitrust approvals. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of St. Jude Medical and Abbott. The acquisition of St. Jude Medical is expected to be accretive to Abbott’s adjusted earnings per share in the first full year after closing and increasing thereafter, with approximately 21 cents of accretion in 2017 and 29 cents in 2018. On July 11, 2016, the waiting period imposed by the HSR Act was extended until 30 days. As of October 4, 2016, Abbott applied for EU anti trust approval, which is expected to be received by November 9, 2016. Shareholders of St. Jude approved the transaction on October 21, 2016. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2016. As of November 23, 2016, European Commission has given its conditional approval to the transaction. As of December 19, 2016, Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the deal. As of November 2, 2016, the transaction has received the antitrust approval. As of December 27, 2016, the transaction has received U.S. antitrust approval. As of December 27, 2016, Federal Trade Commission approved the transaction. As of December 30, 2016, the deal received approval from China's Commerce Ministry. The deal is expected to close on January 4, 2017. Edward D. Herlihy, David K. Lam and Victor Goldfeld of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Baker & McKenzie LLP and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP acted as the legal advisors for Abbott Laboratories. Joseph M. Barbeau, Dennis J. Friedman and Christopher D. Dillon of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP acted as the legal advisor for St. Jude Medical, Inc. Evercore Partners Inc. (NYSE:EVR) acted as the financial advisor for Abbott Laboratories. Guggenheim Securities, LLC acted as the financial advisor for St. Jude Medical, Inc. A cash milestone fee of $2 million payable to Guggenheim Securities upon execution of the merger agreement, will be credited against the foregoing cash transaction fee of $59 million. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated will be providing financing and also is serving as a financial advisor to Abbott Laboratories. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati acted as legal advisor to Evercore. Dan Hulseberg, Jeremy Merling, Michael Ritter, Eric Lin, Michael Knierim, Peter Menchini, Stephanie Diehl of Baker Botts L.L.P. acted as legal advisor for Abbott Laboratories. Computershare Trust Company, NA acted as transfer agent o Abbott Laboratories. Pan Taylor of Jones Day Acted as legal advisor to Abbott Laboratories. Dany Assaf, Marina Chernenko and Kevin Armitage of Torys LLP acted as legal advisors to Abbott Laboratories. Samir R Gandhi and Rahul Rai of AZB & Partners acted as legal advisors to Abbott Laboratories. Tygesson Gary L. and Van Horn Jonathan of Dorsey & Whitney LLP acted as legal advisors to St. Jude Medical Inc. Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) completed the acquisition of St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE:STJ) on January 4, 2017.