Baxter International Inc. BAX, +0.27% is in advanced talks to buy medical-equipment maker Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. for around $ 10 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
A deal that values Hill-Rom HRC, +0.96% at around $ 150 a share could be reached by midweek assuming the talks don’t fall apart, the people said.
The talks follow an earlier bid from Baxter worth $ 144 a share that Hill-Rom rebuffed. Hill-Rom shares jumped in late July on news of that bid and have remained elevated, closing Friday at $ 132.90. Hill-Rom currently has a market capitalization of nearly $ 9 billion. Baxter’s is around $ 37 billion.
Chicago-based Hill-Rom, founded in 1915, makes medical gear such as hospital beds and patient-monitoring devices.
An expanded version of this report can be found at WSJ.com