UPDATE 1-J&J to pay $785 million for sinus-surgery company

* Deal gives J&J new sinus-surgery approach

* Cash deal includes other ear, nose, throat technology

By Ransdell Pierson

NEW YORK, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), in the latest of a string of significant deals this year, on Wednesday said it would pay $785 million in cash to acquire privately held Acclarent Inc and its sinus-surgery technology.

J&J, which sells an array of medical devices as well as drugs and consumer products, said the deal will be net of estimated cash on hand at the time of its expected closing in the first quarter of 2010.

"Acclarent's focus is on achieving the goals of sinus surgery with novel, endoscopic, minimally-invasive devices," J&J said in a release.

It said Acclarent's so-called balloon sinuplasty technology and other innovative products offer an alternative to conventional surgical approaches, including treatment of sleep apnea.

The deal will depress J&J's 2010 earnings by three to four cents per share, the diversified healthcare company said.

J&J last month announced it will cut up to 7 percent of its workforce in order to generate cost savings needed to finance increasingly costly drug research and to weather future challenges.

Earlier this year, the New Brunswick, New Jersey based company said it would eliminate 900 positions from its Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceutical unit.

By bolstering its finances, cost savings have helped enable J&J to acquire stakes this year in Irish drugmaker Elan Corp (ELN.I) and Dutch vaccine company Crucell CRCL.AS. In May, J&J agreed to buy cancer drug developer Cougar Biotechnology for $970 million in cash.

J&J needs revenue from promising new products to offset plunging sales of its big medicines now facing generic competition, including schizophrenia treatment Risperdal and anti-convulsant Topamax. (Reporting by Ransdell Pierson; editing by Gunna Dickson)