Biomed billionaire Alfred Mann plans to plow the $300 million from the sale of his hearing implant company Advanced Bionics Corp. into at least four of his other businesses.

Chief among them will likely be MannKind Corp., which has struggled to get its inhaled insulin drug to market.

Swiss hearing aid company Sonova Holding AG will buy Advanced Bionics for $489 million in cash. The deal, announced Nov. 9, is subject to approval by the shareholders of both companies and federal regulators in coming weeks. Mann, who owns about 60 percent of Advanced Bionics, estimated his share of the payout at almost $300 million.

Mann told the Business Journal last week that he is considering putting most of that money into at least four of his other companies: MannKind, Bioness, PercuPort and Second Sight, all based in the L.A. area.

The news gave a sharp boost to MannKind shares over the week. The stock closed at $6.46 on Nov. 12, up from $5.72 the previous Friday.

Mann has founded 16 companies over his life as a serial entrepreneur, and Advanced Bionics is the fourth that he has sold. He could decide to spread the money even wider around his 12 companies.

“It’s still pretty early and I haven’t fully decided yet, but I have many companies that need the money,” he said.

He also said a small amount of the funds would be set aside for various philanthropic purposes, but not to universities, however. He has previously given $100 million each to launch institutes at USC; the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel; and Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. He has announced intentions for a total of 12 to 15 institutes to be endowed with at least $100 million each.

“I think we need a bit of a rest in this area to see how the current institutes are doing before we endow any more,” he said.

Mann founded Advanced Bionics in 1993; its lead product is a cochlear implant device that restores hearing. The company also was developing a drug pump and devices to treat chronic pain, incontinence and other ailments.

Mann and other investors sold the company to Boston Scientific in 2004 for $740 million. But after years of litigation over the terms of the deal, Mann reached a settlement to buy back the portions of the company focused on the cochlear implant and drug pump for about $150 million.

In 2008, Advanced Bionics reported $117 million in sales and 660 employees. At that time, Mann had a 65 percent stake in the company, but last week he told the Business Journal that stake had been reduced slightly to about 60 percent as he exercised options. He estimated he would receive “just under $300 million” from the sale.

Mann said he had committed to giving some of that money as a capital infusion to MannKind. Over the years, he has pumped in more than $1 billion of his own money into the venture.

Last month, MannKind investors received a jolt when negotiations broke off with a potential marketing partner for the firm’s signature inhaled insulin drug, Afresa, which is being considered for approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. MannKind’s stock plunged 30 percent on the news of the collapse of the marketing talks. In August, the company raised $59.7 million from a secondary offering.

Until Afresa hits the market, MannKind doesn’t have any revenue.

“If the Afresa drug is approved, it should have no problem attracting marketing partners,” said Simos Simeonidis, senior biotechnology analyst with Century City-based Rodman & Renshaw Inc.

The FDA has indicated that it would issue its decision on Afresa in mid-January.