Abbott Laboratories 2012 Annual Report Download - page 4

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In 2012, Abbott sales
increased almost 6% over
2011, excluding the impact
of foreign exchange.
Net Sales Worldwide
(dollars in billions)
$30.8
$35.2
$38.9 $39.9
09 10 11 12
Abbott had two very large goals in 2012: to ready our businesses for a successful
separation and to deliver on our performance plan at the same time. I’m happy to report
that we achieved both in good order. Following a smooth and efficient separation process,
AbbVie is now an independent company with all the assets and abilities needed to remain
a leader in its industry. While managing that significant effort — the largest strategic
initiative in the company’s long history — Abbott again fulfilled its commitments to
shareholders with another strong year.
This speaks volumes about these companies and their abilities. Both have such deep
strength and capability — strategic, financial, and human — that we were able to take on
the work of creating one new major corporation and recreating another while, at the same
time, again delivering record sales and ongoing earnings, along with stock-price growth of
more than 16 percent.
This Annual Report covers both halves of Abbott in 2012. Its discussion of what was
then Abbott’s research-based pharmaceuticals business is presented as AbbVie — with
its new corporate identity — to give you a view of what is now our sister company. I will
focus my comments here on our diagnostics, medical devices, nutrition, and established
pharmaceuticals businesses — the new Abbott.
Today’s Abbott
While AbbVie is a new company in terms of corporate entity, it carries with it a long legacy
and a strong culture. It’s a 125-year-old business with a new form and new opportunity.
Abbott, on the other hand, may look like the same company, because it retains our
well-known name; but Abbott, too, has a new shape and a new future as a result of our
business separation. Both companies are long-established leaders in their respective
markets; both are Fortune 200 companies; both share a highly developed culture of
success. Now both will proceed from this common ground to pursue the separate futures
that lie in their divergent industries.
The new Abbott is ready to extend its long history of success, and it has all the attributes
needed to do so. Today’s Abbott is:
Uniquely diverse and well balanced
The four major businesses that compose Abbott today are all large and strong leaders in
their markets. All are multi-billion dollar businesses of roughly equal size that compete
2012: performing in the present while
moving toward new opportunities.
Abbott achieved record
cash flow in 2012 and
returned more than $3.0
billion to shareholders.
Operating Cash Flow
(dollars in billions)
$7.3
$8.7 $9.0 $9.3
09 10 11 12
Letter to our shareholders
2
Abbott 2012 Annual Report