training but stated that it would look for alternatives in the future. In each case, PETA withdrew its shareholder resolution after talks with Medtronic's leadership. Tax inversion to Ireland In June 2014, Medtronic announced it would execute a tax inversion to Ireland by acquiring Irish-based Covidien plc (a previous U.S. tax inversion to Ireland in 2007), for $42.9 billion in cash and stock. 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. Medtronic's tax inversion is the largest tax inversion in history, and given the changes in the U.S. tax-code in 2016 to block the Pfizer-Allergan Irish tax inversion, is likely to remain the largest. 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". Ireland is less than 0.1% of Medtronic (or Covidien) sales, and the majority of Medtronic's sales, and an even greater percentage of Medtronic profits (due to the higher margins on U.S. medical devices), are from the U.S. healthcare system. In 2016, the Star Tribune reported that Medtronic was still winning U.S. Federal contracts and attending U.S. trade-missions as a U.S. company. In terms of scale, on 23 November 2018, Ireland's largest stockbrokers, Davy Stockbrokers reported that the total capitalization of the Irish stock market was €104 billion (this does not include Medtronic, which Davy do not consider an Irish company). In contrast, on the same day Medtronic's capitalization was listed on Bloomberg at just over $130 billion (or €115 billion). Medtronic's acquisition of Covidien plc made Medtronic the world's largest medical device company by revenues. Response to 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Medtronic refused to join the international community and withdraw from the Russian market. Research from Yale University updated on April 28, 2022 identifying how companies were reacting to Russia's invasion identified Medtronic in the worst category of "Digging In", meaning Defying Demands for Exit: companies defying demands for exit/reduction of activities. See also Corporate tax inversions to Ireland Ireland as a tax haven Steris, US medical device tax inversion to UK and Ireland References External links Medtronic Companies listed on