Covidien plc was an Irish-headquartered global health care products company and manufacturer of medical devices and supplies. Covidien became an independent publicly traded company after being spun off from Tyco International in 2007. It was purchased by Medtronic in a transaction that closed in 2015. Though formed as Covidien in 2007, Covidien traces its roots to 1903 when Henry P. Kendall took over a small textile mill in Walpole, Massachusetts, United States, that produced cotton batts, carpet linings and absorbent cotton. The company later developed health and hygienic products. A number of other medical device companies eventually came together with the Kendall Company to form the foundation for Covidien. By 1994, Kendall had become one of the world’s largest manufacturers of disposable medical supplies, wound care dressings, bandaging, elastic support and other vascular compression products. It became the basis of the Tyco Healthcare business when it was acquired by the company that year, along with Classic Medical, Uni-Patch and Promeon. In 1998, Tyco Healthcare acquired Sherwood, Davis & Geck, a manufacturer and distributor of disposable medical products, and United States Surgical Corporation (U.S. Surgical), which provided suture and auto suture devices, along with energy-based devices, through its Valleylab brand. And, in 2000, Tyco Healthcare added respiratory and monitoring products provider Nellcor Puritan Bennett through the acquisition of Mallinckrodt Inc. In 2007, Covidien was formed when Tyco International spun off its health care business. Since that time, Covidien has made a number of acquisitions including VNUS Medical Technologies, Aspect Medical Systems, Somanetics, ev3, BÂRRX, Newport Medical Instruments, superDimension, Oridion Systems and Given Imaging. Offshoring and focus on Low Cost Countries (LCC) resulted in several plant closures in the USA particularly a few in upper New York state.