Ropes & Gray LLP is guiding Becton Dickinson and Co. on a deal that will see the medical technology company pay $4.2 billion for Edwards Lifesciences' critical care product group, which focuses on patient monitoring using artificial intelligence, the companies said Monday.

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP is representing Edwards, which said in a statement that the deal came together after it dropped an earlier plan to spin off the unit.

The companies said they expect to close the all-cash deal by the end of the year. The critical care product unit, which will continue its operations in Irvine, California, has 4,500 employees and generated more than $900 million in revenue last year, they said.

The unit uses monitoring and medication management technologies, often in operating rooms or intensive care units, to help clinicians "better understand current and future patient conditions" and inform clinical decisions.

"Critical Care expands BD's portfolio of smart connected care solutions with its growing set of leading monitoring technologies, advanced AI-enabled clinical decision tools and robust innovation pipeline that complement BD's existing technologies serving operating rooms and intensive care units," Tom Polen, chair, CEO and president of Becton Dickinson, said in a statement.

Despite ditching its earlier plan to spin off the critical care unit, Bernard Zovighian, Edwards' CEO, said the underlying rationale for separating the business remains the same: to focus on its structural heart disease portfolio.

Franklin Lakes, New Jersey-based Becton Dickinson expects to fund the transaction with $1 billion of cash and $3.2 billion of new financing, with Perella Weinberg Partners and Citi as financial advisers.

Goldman Sachs & Co. and Morgan Stanley & Co. are Edwards' financial advisers.

The Ropes & Gray team representing Becton Dickinson includes mergers and acquisitions partners Emily Oldshue and Marko Zatylny; tax partner Benjamin Rogers; executive compensation and employee benefits partner Jenny Rikoski Whitney; litigation and enforcement partners Jonathan Klarfeld and Ruchit Patel; life sciences licensing partner Amanda Austin; healthcare partner Jennifer Romig; data, privacy and cybersecurity partner Ed McNicholas; life sciences regulatory and compliance partners Josh Oyster and Katherine Wang; employment partner Richard Kidd; and real estate partner David Kaye.

The Skadden team representing Edwards includes M&A partner Neil Stronski; tax partner Nathan Giesselman; labor partner Ryne Posey; antitrust partners Kenneth Schwartz, Giorgio Motta and Michael Sheerin; life sciences partner Maya Florence; and capital markets partner Michelle Gasaway.