Equity

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2011

Stockholders' Equity Note [Abstract]

Equity

Equity.  On June 22, 2011, Merit completed an equity public offering of 5,520,000 shares of common stock and received proceeds of approximately $87.7 million, which is net of approximately $4.6 million in underwriting discounts and commissions. We incurred approximately $127,000 in other direct costs in connection with this equity offering. In addition to the net proceeds of the public equity offering, we received approximately $6.8 million in cash related to the exercise of options to purchase approximately 983,000 shares of common stock and approximately $2.9 million in tax benefits attributable to appreciation of these options exercised during the nine months ended September 30, 2011.