On 9 October, Esaote announced that the Chinese Midea Group had completed the acquisition of a controlling stake in the company. The Genoa-based medical imaging company is joining Midea Healthcare, the group’s division dedicated to medical imaging, and will continue to operate as an independent company, with its headquarters in Genoa and its research and production centres in Italy and the Netherlands. Franco Fontana will remain CEO, having been confirmed by the new shareholders. “This transaction marks the beginning of a new and exciting phase for Esaote,” he said.
Esaote’s headquarters in Genoa are located on Erzelli Hill. The company moved its corporate headquarters there in May 2016, leaving its historic premises on Via Siffredi. The site is also home to Esaote’s research and development laboratories for ultrasound and Medical IT—the software used in hospitals to manage and archive diagnostic examinations and images. Magnetic resonance imaging systems are designed and manufactured at the company’s facility in Multedo, while ultrasound probes are produced in Florence.
What Midea brings
These are technologies that Esaote does not manufacture. The company’s strengths lie in ultrasound, open and dedicated magnetic resonance imaging—more compact systems designed primarily for the examination of joints and the spine—and clinical software. This is why the group describes the two product portfolios as complementary. The announcement promises Esaote targeted investments in research and development and production capacity, as well as access to Midea’s imaging technologies. The aim is to shorten product development times and enter new markets.
Midea is a technology group founded in 1968 in Shunde, in China’s Guangdong Province, and listed on the Shenzhen and Hong Kong stock exchanges. In 2025, it generated approximately $64 billion in revenue, and this year it ranked 231st in the Fortune Global 500. The group operates across seven sectors, ranging from home appliances to industrial automation. In recent years, it has built a healthcare division producing digital radiology systems, CT scanners, angiography systems and high-field magnetic resonance imaging systems.
The transaction concludes a process that began in 2018, when Esaote was acquired by a consortium of Chinese companies in the medical sector. One of them was WDM, which held just over 22% of the company. Midea acquired control of WDM and its stake and, with this transaction, reached 100% ownership of the company, according to Il Sole 24 Ore.
Esaote today
As of 31 December 2025, the group had revenues of €267 million, with seven out of every ten euros generated in international markets. It employs approximately 1,160 people, one in five of whom work in research and development. Esaote allocates around 12% of its annual revenue to R&D. The company is one of the world’s top ten manufacturers of ultrasound systems and open and dedicated magnetic resonance systems, and operates in more than 100 countries.
From Ansaldo to Erzelli
Esaote was established in 1980 as Ansaldo Elettronica Biomedicale, a division of the Ansaldo Group launched by Carlo Castellano. In 2003, Castellano founded Genova High Tech with the aim of transforming Erzelli Hill—then a container storage area—into Genoa’s scientific and technology park. Thirteen years later, the company from which the project had originated moved its corporate headquarters up to the hill.
