ST. JUDE COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF ESI

St. Jude has completed the acquisition of Endocardial Solutions (ESI) for $11.75 per share in cash consideration which represents an aggregate purchase price of approximately $272 million.

St. Paul, Minn.-based ESI develops, manufactures and markets the EnSite System used for the navigation and localization of diagnostic and therapeutic catheters used in atrial fibrillation ablation and other electrophysiology catheterization procedures.

St. Jude and ESI originally announced an agreement for St. Jude to acquire ESI in September 2004. The stockholders of Endocardial Solutions adopted a merger agreement whereby ESI became a wholly owned subsidiary of St. Jude. In conjunction with the completion of this transaction, St. Jude will record a special charge of approximately $11 million in the first quarter related to purchased in-process R&D.