Special Charges

In connection with various organizational changes to improve our business alignment and cost structure, as well as legal settlements, we recognized special charges of $37.4 million, $39.9 million and $41.2 million for the year to date periods ended September 30, 2017, 2016 and 2015. These charges are summarized as follows:

Dispositions

During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, we sold our Völker business. We recorded impairment charges of $25.4 million during the third quarter, relating mainly to non-cash write-downs of long-lived assets and working capital associated with the Völker brand portfolio, and fiscal 2017 transaction related costs of approximately $3.0 million in Special charges.

During the first quarter of fiscal 2017, we sold our Architectural Products business and recorded special charges of $1.1 million, primarily related to severance.

Legal Settlements

During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, we entered into a confidential agreement with Stryker Corporation, resolving alleged infringement of certain Hill-Rom patents covering proprietary communications networks whereby Stryker Corporation paid the Company $15.1 million.

Integration and Business Realignment

We recently acquired Mortara and Tridien and initiated integration activities to optimize the available synergies of our combined company. Additionally, with the acquisition of Welch Allyn in September 2015, we initiated plans to realign our business structure to facilitate the integration, take full advantage of available synergies, and position our existing businesses to capitalize on opportunities for growth. We also incurred costs, including severance and benefit costs, associated with other business realignment and integration activities. During the year ended September 30, 2017, we incurred total integration and business realignment charges of approximately $7.6 million, of which $3.5 million were severance and benefit costs. These amounts compare to charges of $19.0 million, of which $14.0 million were severance and benefit costs during the year ended September 30, 2016. Additionally, we recorded special charges of $14.4 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015 related to the acquisition of Welch Allyn. We continue to evaluate additional actions related to integration and business realignment and expect additional special charges to be incurred. However, it is not practicable to estimate the amount of these future expected costs until such time as the evaluations are complete.

Site Consolidation

In the third quarter of fiscal 2015, we initiated a plan to streamline our operations and simplify our supply chain by consolidating certain manufacturing and distribution operations ("Site Consolidation"). As part of this action, we have announced the closure of five sites. During the year ended September 30, 2017, we recorded total charges of $19.7 million, related to these efforts, of which $5.1 million were severance and benefit costs. During fiscal 2016, we recorded total charges related to the combined activities of $15.9 million related to these actions, including $7.2 million of severance and benefit costs. During fiscal 2015, we recorded severance and benefit charges of $2.7 million, as well as $1.8 million of other related costs.

During the second quarter of fiscal 2017, we sold our Charleston property for $6.1 million in cash proceeds and recorded a gain of $5.2 million.

Since the inception of the Site Consolidation program through September 30, 2017, we have recognized aggregate special charges of $34.9 million. We continue to evaluate our facilities footprint and expect to incur additional costs with respect to other actions in the future, however, it is not practicable to estimate the amount of these future expected costs until such time as the evaluations are complete.

2014 Global Transformation

During the second quarter of fiscal 2014, we announced a global transformation program focused on improving our cost structure. The domestic portion of this action was completed in fiscal 2015. Part of this program included reducing our European manufacturing capacity and streamlining our global operations by, among other things, executing a back office process transformation program in Europe. The restructuring in Europe is complete and, for the year to date period ended September 30, 2017, resulted in charges of $0.9 million for legal and professional fees, temporary labor, project management, severance and benefit costs, and other administrative functions. These amounts compare to charges of $5.1 million and $12.7 million (net of reversals) in the prior year to date periods ended 2016 and 2015. Since the inception of the 2014 global transformation program through September 30, 2017, we have recognized aggregate special charges of $43.6 million. We do not expect to incur further costs related to this action.

Pension Settlement Charge

As disclosed in Note 6 of our Consolidated Financial Statements, we offered lump sum settlements to all terminated vested participants in our domestic master defined benefit retirement plan, which resulted in a settlement charge of $9.6 million. This charge was recorded as a component of special charges in fiscal 2015.

For all accrued severance and other benefit charges described above, we record restructuring reserves within other current liabilities. The reserve activity for severance and other benefits during the year to date period ended September 30, 2017 was as follows:



Balance at September 30, 2016	$	14.7
Expenses	9.7
Cash Payments	(14.3		)
Reversals	(1.1		)
Balance at September 30, 2017	$	9.0