Jerusalem-based Oridion is a maker of ventilation devices, generating sales of $64 million last year. Terms of the deal call for Covidien to pay $23 per share in cash for the company, which trades on the Swiss Exchange, valuing the company at about $300 million net of cash acquired.

Robert J. White, president of Covidien's respiratory and monitoring business, in a statement said that buying Oridion "adds a key monitoring technology" to his company's portfolio.

"Oridion's products ... are excellent complements to the company's current portfolio of pulse oximeters and monitoring products," he said, "enabling us to offer a complete portfolio of solutions to monitor respiratory function for patients around the world."

Covidien has been an especially active acquirer since December, when it announced a tax-free spinoff that separated its pharmaceuticals business from the company. The one-time healthcare arm of Tyco International Ltd. last month in a matter of days committed $300 million to buy superDimension Ltd. of Israel and $108 million to acquire California's Newport Medical Instruments Inc.

Covidien, which is based in Dublin but operates out of Massachusetts, in the years since its 2007 spinout from Tyco has been working to revamp its portfolio of drugs and medical devices. Not long after that spinout, Covidien sold its retail products business to First Quality Enterprises Inc. for $335 million, and since June 2010 it has announced plans to buy ev3 Inc. for $2.6 billion, Somanetics Corp. for $250 million and Bârrx Medical Inc. for $325 million.

With the spinout of the $2 billion-in-sales pharma unit, Covidien is discarding a business that generates operating margins in the high-teens in favor of focusing on medical devices, where operating margins are above 30%.