Medtronic was founded in 1949 in Minneapolis by Earl Bakken and his brother-in-law, Palmer Hermundslie, as a medical equipment repair shop.

[citation needed] Through his repair business, Bakken came to know C. Walton Lillehei, a doctor of heart surgery at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

The deficiencies of the artificial pacemakers of the day were made painfully obvious following a power outage over Halloween in 1957, which affected large sections of Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

Medtronic's main competitors in the cardiac rhythm field include Boston Scientific and St. Jude Medical.

The deal included Medtronic's MicroFrance and Xomed manual ENT and laparoscopic surgical instruments, as well as a manufacturing facility in France.

[13] In February 2016, the company announced that it would acquire Bellco from private equity firm Charme Capital Partners.

[17] In late November, Medtronic acquired Nutrino Health Ltd boosting the company's nutrition-related data services and analytics.

[21] In January 2020, the company announced its intention to acquire Stimgenics, LLC and their primary therapy: differential target, multiplexed, spinal cord stimulation.

[23] In August, Medtronic announced it would acquire Companion Medical, who manufacture a smart insulin pen system, which connects to a diabetes management app.

[27] On 3 June 2021, the FDA alerted physicians to stop new implants of the HVAD system due to "an increased risk of neurological adverse events and mortality associated with the internal pump.

[30][31] Touch Surgery works with laparoscopic and robotic scopes and is an AI-powered video management and analytics platform for the operating room.

[30][31] In May, Medtronic and DaVita Inc. announced plans to form a new, independent kidney care-focused medical device company.

[32] In April 2022, the company announced that it would work with GE Healthcare to support the needs and care demands at Ambulatory Surgery Centers.

[33] In July, Medtronic announced a strategic partnership with CathWorks, a coronary artery disease (CAD) technology developer.

An independently-operating Dutch pacemaker manufacturer, Vitatron, acquired by Medtronic in 1986, is now a European subsidiary of the unit.

[77] In 2007, Medtronic recalled its Sprint Fidelis product, the flexible wires, or leads, which connect a defibrillator to the interior of the heart.

Studies since the recall, disputed by Medtronic, suggest that the failure rate of already-implanted Sprint Fidelis leads is increasing exponentially.

[80] A "special report" by writer Steven Brill in Time showed that according to Medtronic's quarterly SEC filing of October 2012, the company had, on average, a 75.1% profit margin on its spine products and therapies.

[83][84][85] The original company, Minimed Technologies, was founded in 1983 by Alfred E. Mann and spun off from Pacesetter Systems to design and market an open loop insulin pump.

[88] On 11 May 2009, Medtronic announced it had chosen San Antonio, Texas, for the location of its new Diabetes Therapy Management and Education Center.

[90] The surgical technologies business group designed and manufactured products for the diagnosis and treatment of ear, nose, and throat (ENT) diseases and cranial, spinal, and neurologic conditions.

The team, using an unused implant in a lab, was able to control the electrical shocks delivered by the defibrillator component and even glean patient data from the device.

[96] Medtronic is a corporate partner of Human Rights Campaign, a large LGBT advocacy organization.

In response, Medtronic conducted a feasibility study that found that banning the use of live animals was impractical.

[3][101] The tax inversion enabled Medtronic to move its legal headquarters to Ireland, while maintaining its operational and executive headquarters in the U.S., thus allowing it to avoid taxation on more than $14 billion held overseas, and avail of Ireland's beneficial low corporation tax regime.

[103] Medtronic CEO Omar Ishrak defended the tax inversion in a 2015 interview to the Financial Times saying, "We just followed the rules and the deal was done based on strategic merits".