Special Items—We recognize expenses resulting directly from our business combinations, employee termination benefits, certain R&D agreements, certain contract terminations, consulting and professional fees and asset impairment or loss on disposal charges connected with global restructuring, quality and operational excellence initiatives, and other items as “Special items” in our condensed consolidated statement of earnings. “Special items” included (in millions):


	Three Months Ended September 30,					Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2015		2014			2015		2014
Biomet-related
Merger consideration compensation expense	$	—	$	—		$	164.1	$	—
Retention plans		—		—			73.0		—
Consulting and professional fees		28.0		27.2			114.6		40.9
Employee termination benefits		14.2		—			79.1		—
Dedicated project personnel		36.8		0.3			45.9		0.3
Relocated facilities		1.6		—			2.5		—
Contract terminations		59.2		—			75.1		—
Information technology integration		1.1		—			1.1		—
Other		5.7		—			7.6		—

Other
Consulting and professional fees		30.2		21.8			109.5		63.8
Employee termination benefits		1.1		—			1.9		0.9
Dedicated project personnel		6.4		13.9			28.9		35.7
Impairment/loss on disposal of assets		—		—			2.3		5.9
Certain R&D agreements		—		—			—		4.5
Relocated facilities		—		—			—		0.7
Distributor acquisitions		—		0.1			—		0.5
Certain litigation matters		—		—			20.3		—
Contract terminations		—		0.3			—		1.5
Information technology integration		1.8		—			1.8		—
Contingent consideration adjustments		0.1		(0.2	)		2.4		0.2
Accelerated software amortization		—		1.5			1.5		4.5
Other		9.7		1.0			20.3		4.9

Special items	$	195.9	$	65.9		$	751.9	$	164.3

Pursuant to the Biomet merger agreement, all outstanding LVB stock options and LVB stock-based awards vested immediately prior to the effective time of the merger, and holders of these options and awards received a portion of the aggregate merger consideration. Some of these options and awards were already vested under the terms of LVB’s equity incentive plans. We accounted for the fair value of the consideration we paid in exchange for previously vested options and awards as consideration to complete the merger. As part of the merger agreement terms, all previously unvested options and awards vested immediately prior to the effective time of the merger. Under LVB’s equity incentive plans, unvested options and awards would have otherwise been forfeited. We have concluded that the discretionary accelerated vesting of these unvested options and awards was for the economic benefit of the combined company, and, therefore, we classified the fair value of the merger consideration we paid to holders of such unvested options and awards of $164.1 million as compensation expense.

Pursuant to the LVB merger agreement, retention plans were established for certain Biomet employees and third-party sales agents. Retention payments were earned by employees and third-party sales agents who remained with Biomet through the Closing Date. We recognized $73.0 million of expense resulting from these retention plans.

After the Closing Date, we started to implement our integration plans to drive operational synergies. Part of these integration plans included termination of employees and certain contracts. Expenses attributable to the initial phase of these integration plans that were recognized in the three and nine month periods ended September 30, 2015 as part of “Special items” related to employee termination benefits and contract termination expense associated with agreements with independent agents, distributors, suppliers and lessors. Our integration plans are expected to last through 2018 and we expect to incur a total of $170 million for employee termination benefits and $130 million for contract termination expense in that time period. The following table summarizes the liabilities related to these integration plans (in millions):


	Employee Termination Benefits			Contract Terminations			Total
Balance, Closing Date	$	—		$	—		$	—
Additions		79.1			75.1			154.2
Cash payments		(28.4	)		(5.9	)		(34.3	)
Foreign currency exchange rate changes		(0.1	)		(0.2	)		(0.3	)

Balance, September 30, 2015	$	50.6		$	69.0		$	119.6