A Reuters news story published in guardian.co.uk, reports that Siemens AG is considering "a strategic buyer and five private equity firms as potential buyers of its hearing aid unit," which could potentially be valued at more than $2.89 billion, according to sources.

The report says that late last year Siemens put the unit up for sale, and the auction is in its second round.

Siemens Hearing Instruments Inc, a division of Siemens Healthcare, is headquartered in Piscataway, NJ, and Erlangen, Germany. Siemens AG is based in Munich.

Said to be in the running: Bain Capital, Cinven, Hellman & Friedman, KKR, and Permira. The report says "a strategic acquirer" also aims to buy the unit. According to Reuters, none of the firms commented on the matter on the record.

Click here to read the entire article.

The article says that the hearing unit is projected to make earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of about 170 million euros in 2010, according to unnamed sources.

HR reported that Sonova Holding, AG recently acquired InSound Medical Inc, Newark, Calif, developer of the Lyric extended wear hearing aid—for an up-front cash consideration of $75 million and earn-out payments, and that Sonova just completed its $489 million acquisition of Advanced Bionics Corp, Valencia, Calif, a developer and manufacturer of cochlear implant systems.

UBS is running the sale, according to Reuters.

[Source: guardian.co.uk]