Medtronic and Kyphon Announce Clearance from German Federal Cartel Office for the Merger of Medtronic and Kyphon

Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE: MDT) and Kyphon Inc. (Nasdaq: KYPH) announced today that the German Federal Cartel Office has given its clearance in connection with the previously announced merger agreement between Kyphon and Medtronic, Inc. Completion of the transaction, which is expected later this year or in the first quarter of 2008, remains subject to obtaining approvals of antitrust authorities in several other jurisdictions, the approval of Kyphon’s stockholders and other customary closing conditions. A special meeting of Kyphon’s stockholders to vote on the proposed merger has been called for October 16, 2007. If further antitrust clearances are obtained prior to the Kyphon stockholders' meeting, the companies will provide an update at the time of the meeting.


ABOUT MEDTRONIC
Medtronic, Inc. (http://www.medtronic.com/), headquartered in Minneapolis, is the global leader in medical technology – alleviating pain, restoring health, and extending life for millions of people around the world.


Medtronic is a registered trademark of Medtronic, Inc.


ABOUT KYPHON
Kyphon develops and markets medical devices designed to restore and preserve spinal function and diagnose the source of low back pain using minimally invasive technologies. The company’s products are used in balloon kyphoplasty for the treatment of spinal compression fractures caused by osteoporosis or cancer, in the Functional Anaesthetic Discography™ (F.A.D.™) procedure for diagnosing the source of low back pain, and in the Interspinous Process Decompression (IPD®) procedure for treating the symptoms of lumbar spinal stenosis. More information about the company and its products can be found at http://www.kyphon.com/ and its balloon kyphoplasty patient education Web site, http://www.spinalfracture.com/.


Kyphon and IPD are registered trademarks, and Functional Anaesthetic Discography and F.A.D. are trademarks, of Kyphon Inc.

Bayer launches mobile website for cellphones and blackberries

Bayer AG has set up a new source of information for its latest corporate news. Users of mobile terminals – such as cellphones, blackberries, PDAs, palmtops and smartphones – can now call up the most important Bayer news items, press releases and the latest Bayer share prices as well as general information on the Leverkusen-based chemical and pharmaceutical group. The website is aimed at media representatives, analysts and anyone else who may be interested in the company, who regularly goes online via a mobile terminal and who wants to obtain the latest information about Bayer both quickly and conveniently. Within its industry, Bayer is the first company in Germany to offer a mobile-enabled website and to follow the trend towards a greater use of flat rates, so that cellphone users can surf the internet wherever they are, without restrictions and at a fixed rate.

The corporate website has been specially optimized for this application and can be called up in German and English. Users can access, among other things, corporate facts and figures, products, KPIs, stock information and charts as well as Bayer sports news. In addition, the investor relations and press pages carry the relevant contact details for queries.

Device recognition allows the identification of over 4,000 different mobile terminals. Depending on the device class, all web pages have been set up for the required display, so that graphics, text and navigation elements are specially tailored for the device that is in use.

“In our mobile information society the internet increasingly accompanies its users while traveling – a need which is clearly met by this special corporate website for mobiles, blackberries etc. It is possible to call up corporate news and share prices at any time, virtually anywhere. So Bayer is now providing perfect pocket-sized convenience,” says Heiner Springer, Head of Communications at Bayer AG.

The website is available in German at:
http://mobil.bayer.de and http://www.mobil.bayer.de

The website is available in English at:
http://mobile.bayer.com and http://www.mobile.bayer.com


For more information visit www.bayer.de