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Cardinal Health, Inc.

Type	Public (NYSE: CAH}
Founded	1971
Headquarters	Dublin, Ohio, U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	George S. Barrett (Chairman and CEO)
Industry	Health care
Products	Medical equipment Pharmaceuticals Clinical services
Revenue	▲ US$ 99.51 billion (2009)
Operating income	▲ US$ 1.88 billion (2009)
Net income	▼ US$ 1.14 billion (2009)
Total assets	▲ US$ 23.45 billion (2009)
Total equity	▲ US$ 7.75 billion (2009)
Employees	30,000 (2009)
Website	Cardinalhealth.com

Cardinal Health, Inc., is a health care services company based in Dublin, Ohio. It is currently ranked 18th on the Fortune 500. Cardinal health specializes in health care supply chain services, providing pharmaceuticals and medical products to more than 40,000 locations each day. The company is also a manufacturer of medical and surgical products, including gloves, surgical apparel and fluid management products. In addition, the company supports the growing diagnostic industry by supplying medical products to clinical laboratories and operating the nation’s largest network of radiopharmacies that dispense products to aid in the early diagnosis and treatment of disease.^[1]

[edit] History

Founded in 1971 as Cardinal Foods by Robert D. Walter, it was initially a food wholesaler. Acquiring the Bailey Drug Company in 1979, it began wholesaling drugs as Cardinal Distribution, Incorporated. Following the introduction of the company on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 1983 it commenced on a long string of acquisitions and mergers. It is now traded on the NYSE under symbol (CAH [1]). As of 2009, it was ranked 18th on the Fortune 500 list with 2008 annual revenue of over $99 billion.^[2] Cardinal employs more than 30,000 people worldwide.

In 1995, Medicine Shoppe International (St. Louis, est. 1970), the country’s largest franchise of retail pharmacies,^[3] was acquired. The merger represents the first non-distribution acquisition by Cardinal Health.^[4]

In 1999, Cardinal acquired the Chicago-based medical products manufacturer and distributor, Allegiance Healthcare--formerly a division of Baxter Healthcare. Among its proprietary products, Allegiance made surgical drapes, gloves, and gowns; Allegiance also distributed customized arrangements of medical supplies (called "custom sterile packs" and "procedure-based delivery systems") as a means of offering end-user health care personnel a means of making their supply chain more efficient.^[5]

In April 2005, Jeffrey W. Henderson joined Cardinal Health as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). R. Kerry Clark was appointed as President and CEO on April 17, 2006, with Robert D. Walter retaining the Chairmanship. On June 28, 2007, Cardinal Health announced the completion of the tender offer for VIASYS Healthcare.^[6] On September 29, 2008 the company announced Kerry Clark would retire and George Barrett would become the Chairman and CEO. The company also announced plans to spin off the Clinical and Medical Products business as a separate publicly traded company under the name, CareFusion Corporation, with David Schlotterbeck as CEO.^[7] The spin-off was completed on September 1, 2009.^[8] CareFusion's anticipated annual revenue will be approximately $4 billion.^[7]

[edit] External links

• Cardinal Health Official Web Site
• CareFusion Official Web Site
• USA Today Q&A with former CEO Kerry Clark
• Center For Safety Clinical Excellence

[edit] References

1. ^ About Cardinal Health.
2. ^ Annual rankings of America's largest corporations. Fortune 500
3. ^ Medicine Shoppe Company Discription Hoover's, Inc. 2009
4. ^ Cardinal Health history @ Cardinal.com
5. ^ Learning the business from the ground up: an interview with Steve Inacker DC Velocity Q & A
6. ^ VIASYS
7. ^ ^{a b} Cardinal Health to name spinoff after CareFusion line Healthcare IT News. February 18, 2009
8. ^ Securities and Exchange Commission, Form 10 registration