use of the system for prostate surgery. The FDA has subsequently approved the system for thoracoscopic surgery, cardiac procedures performed with adjunctive incisions, and gynecologic procedures. Shortly before going public, Intuitive Surgical was sued for patent infringement by Computer Motion, Inc, its chief rival. Computer Motion had actually gotten into the robotic surgery field earlier than Intuitive Surgical, with its own system, the ZEUS Robotic Surgical System. Although the ZEUS system was approved in Europe, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had not yet approved it for any procedure at the time that the FDA first approved the da Vinci system. The uncertainty created by the litigation between the companies was a drag on each company's growth. In 2003, Intuitive Surgical and Computer Motion agreed to merge, thus ending the litigation between them. The ZEUS system was ultimately phased out in favor of the da Vinci system. Computer Motion was led by Chairman Robert Duggan from 1990 until 2003, when the two companies merged. Before the buyout of Computer Motion, the stock of Intuitive was selling at around $14 per share, adjusted for stock splits. After the merger, the stock price rose significantly (and by 2015 it was at about $500), primarily because of the growth in systems sold (60 in 2002 compared with 431 in 2014) and the number of surgical procedures performed (less than 1,000 in 2002 compared with 540,000 in 2014). Finances For the fiscal year 2017, Intuitive Surgical reported earnings of US$660 million, with an annual revenue of US$3.129 billion, an increase of 15.7% over the previous fiscal cycle. Intuitive Surgical's shares traded at over $307 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over US$58 billion in November 2018. da Vinci Surgical System The da Vinci Surgical System is a robotic surgical system. The system is controlled by a surgeon from a console. It is commonly used for prostatectomies and increasingly for cardiac valve repair and gynecologic surgical procedures. A da Vinci Surgical System costs approximately $1.5 million. The new da Vinci SI released in April 2009 cost about $1.75 million. In addition, there are maintenance contracts plus expenditures for instruments used during surgery. In 2008, The New York Times reported that most hospitals and clinics have a hard time recovering the cost of the robot. Lawsuit In June 2018, Intuitive Surgical settled class action lawsuits against it for a payment of $43 million.