Report: Boston Scientific to cut 175 jobs in Galway, Ireland

February 9, 2010 by MassDevice staff

Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE: BSX) plans to cut 175 jobs from its Galway, Ireland, operations, according to RTE, the Emerald Isle's national television and radio broadcast company.

The news service reported that the Natick, Mass.-based medical devices giant would shed the positions from its facility at Ballybrit, where the firm employs some 3,000 workers.

In June, BSX made a substantial investment in its Galway operations, spending some $128 million to open a new research and development lab. The company anticipated that the new facility would create some 45 jobs in the area over the next five years.

BSX employs about 5,000 workers in Ireland.

The company got some bad news of its own when a Goldman Sachs analyst lowered his 12-month price target for BSX stock from $10 to $9, ahead of its fourth-quarter earnings release later this week.

Analyst David Roman lowered price targets for BSX, Medtronic Inc. (NYSE: MDT) and St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) to his "Americas Conviction" list.

Roman cited continuing pricing pressures in the implantable cardiac defibrillator market and vendor consolidation as reasons for his lowered expectations for the device makers.

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