MedQuist Shares Rise on Purchase Offer

Shares of MedQuist Inc., which transcribes medical records dictated by telephone, rose as much as 17% after Royal Philips Electronics agreed to buy a majority stake in the company for about $1.2 billion. MedQuist shares jumped $3.75 to close at $42.88 in heavy trading on Nasdaq. Philips offered $51 a share for 60% of Marlton, N.J.-based MedQuist, a 30% premium to Monday’s closing price. Amsterdam-based Philips would boost MedQuist’s sales growth, now 20% a year, by providing speech-recognition technology that converts recorded dictation into text, the companies said. MedQuist, which had 1999 sales of $330 million, uses about 8,000 typists to transcribe dictated records. The two companies said they plan to expand the business in Europe.

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