A California-based company with a manufacturing and research facility in Gunnison has been purchased by a German competitor. According to a January 10 press release, Freedom Innovations, the number three prosthetics company in the United States, signed a binding purchase agreement on September 22, 2017 with Otto Bock HealthCare, a German global market leader in technical orthopedics and the number one prosthetics company in the USA. According to the president of Otto Bock, both companies will benefit from their combined sales power and portfolios, taking Freedom Innovations to the next level. Freedom Innovations employs 150 people around the world, including the Gunnison facility.