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Siemens will share more details of the deconsolidation plans in Q2 2026. Credit: Kittyfly/Shutterstock.com

Siemens has announced plans to ‘deconsolidate’ its remaining stake in Siemens Healthineers by transferring 30% of shares to Siemens shareholders.

Siemens, whose stake had stood at 67%, will hand the shares over via a direct spin-off as ‘preferable option’.

Deciding to deconsolidate the Healthineers business follows a thorough assessment and strategic review of how both companies can best realise their full potential, accelerate their respective transformations, and successfully tap into new areas of growth, according to Siemens.

Once complete, Siemens anticipates that itself and Siemens Healthineers will be well-positioned to operate with “greater agility and focus”.

The action will also give “additional leeway” and increase transparency while “reducing complexity” for the capital market and simplifying governance structures, according to Siemens’ president and CEO Roland Busch.

Busch continued: “By giving up the controlling majority in Siemens Healthineers, we are focusing on a highly synergistic Siemens portfolio.

Olympus has initiated a plan to restructure its endoscopy business, following numerous regulatory run-ins and controversy within the company’s leadership team.

Through this strategic alignment, the Japan-based medtech will be making Y24bn ($155.8m) in run-rate savings, and will lay off 2,000 staff across its global workforce, as noted in a 7 November company statement.

The changes, which will come into effect in FY2026 and FY2027, will also “expand managerial spans of control” through the simplification of Olympus’ business operations, which the company claims will allow for clearer accountability within its endoscopy operations.

In the statement, Olympus president and CEO Bob White noted that the jobs cuts would “enhance the company’s agility” while allowing the company to make “bold investments in the next generation of medical technology”. 

Broadwood Partners, the largest shareholder in STAAR Surgical, is calling on the company to enlist new directors to oversee the revised terms of the company’s proposed $1.5bn merger with rival eyecare specialist Alcon.

Since STAAR agreed to be acquired by Alcon in August, Broadwood has been on the offensive. As its largest shareholder, holding 27.5% of STAAR’s common shares, the investment firm said the transaction suffered from “multiple process and valuation deficiencies” and that it planned to vote against it. Alcon and STAAR’s boards of directors had unanimously approved the transaction at the time.

The main sticking point of the dispute is Broadwood’s belief that the $1.5bn deal is insufficient in maximising shareholder value. Alcon previously offered $62 per share for STAAR when it moved to acquire the company in October 2024, though this approach was rejected. This price was “far above” the August offer of $28 per share, the shareholder pointed out. 

During the UK’s Autumn Budget, Rachel Reeves has unveiled further technology investments for the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) and, separately, the establishment of 250 neighbourhood healthcare centres.

Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer for the UK’s Labour Government, took centre stage on 26 November to deliver the budget in the House of Commons.

Addressing healthcare-related intents in the budget, Reeves said the government plans to deliver 100 of 250 new community health centres by 2030. 

The plans echo part of the government’s 10-year plan to shift the NHS towards becoming more of a community-centric care service. Under the initiative, the centres will bring together GPs, nurses, dentists and pharmacists under a single roof in community settings, with the goal to cut waiting times and reduce strain on hospitals. 

BillionToOne has become a newly minted public company, raising $273.1m in an upsized initial public offering (IPO), despite the longest government shutdown in US history hampering those wishing to join the stock exchange.

The US-based company sold around 4.5 million shares of its common stock at $60 each. The molecular test developer initially offered around 3.8 million shares that were expected to fall between $49 and $55 each. 

BillionToOne’s IPO has given it a market valuation at around $2.6bn. The molecular diagnosis company’s shares are set to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market from 6 November under the ticker symbol ‘BLLN’. 

The IPO marks a culmination of a successful past few years for BillionToOne. At the JP Morgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco in January 2025,  the company announced that it had achieved 2024 revenues of $153m, more than doubling its $72m profits in 2023.