METI bought for $130 million

SARASOTA — Medical Education Technologies Inc. (METI) will be acquired by CAE Healthcare, a subsidiary of Canada-based CAE (symbol: CAE), for $130 million.

Sarasota-based METI designs and builds software and simulators for medical teaching. Its simulators are designed to mimic medical emergencies for training purposes. Roughly 6,000 METI simulators are in use today in medical schools and hospitals across the globe, the company estimates.

CAE specializes in modeling, training and simulation for civil aviation and defense. Its focus on simulation makes it a match with METI, but its entry into the health care space represents a new market for the Canadian company, which generated $1.6 billion in revenues in its 2010 fiscal year.

Michael Bernstein, CEO at METI, will become president of CAE Healthcare once the transaction is completed. CAE expects METI's revenues to double, from $60 million to $120 million, by its 2013 fiscal year, a statement says.

CAE will finance most of its acquisition costs by issuing $150 million in senior notes. The debt will have an average maturity of 11.7 years, and an average interest rate of 4.5%.

Note: An earlier version of this story listed the price paid for METI at $160 million. That number has since been corrected to reflect the actual sale price.