Medtronic Inc, the world's largest independent medical products maker, yesterday said that it is selling its Physio-Control unit to private equity firm Bain Capital, for $487 million.

Based in Redmond-Washington, Physio-Control is the global leader in professional emergency response products and services.

Physio-Control products, which include Lifepak monitor / defibrillators, the Lucas 2 chest compression system, and the LifenetSystem cloud-based data management tools, are used daily by emergency medical services and hospital care teams worldwide.

Physio-Control also provides a line of automated external defibrillators for use in workplace environments, airports and schools for cardiac emergency.

The company had sales of $425 million last year and has nearly 1,000 employees.

Physio-Control was acquired by Minneapolis-based Medtronic in 1998 for $538 million in stock and assumed debt, and prior to that, it had been owned by a number of groups, including Bain Capital for a few years in the mid-1990s.