:TOP
STORY
$340 Million Acquisition of 1-800
Contacts Approved
1-800 Contacts shareholders voted to approve the company's
acquisition by affiliates of Fenway partners, taking the
contact-lens retailer private as of Sept. 6. The
acquisition—valued at just under $340 million, or $24.25 per
share—was first announced in early June, according to
Vision Monday. Shortly thereafter, 1-800 Contacts sold its
ClearLab contact lens business in two parts: ClearLab's
manufacturing, distribution and customer support operations were
sold to Mi Gwang Contact Lens, a Korean-based contact lens
manufacturer, and ClearLab's flat pack technology and other
intellectual property went to Japanese contact lens manufacturer
Menicon in a separate deal. 1-800 Contacts had said in early
March it was conducting a "strategic review" of its U.S. retail
business in addition to exploring options for selling
ClearLab.
:CONFERENCE
CALLS
Advanced Medical Optics (NYSE:
EYE) will present at noon ET
Sept. 27 at the UBS 2007 Global Life Sciences Conference. Access is
at www.amo-inc.com.
InSite Vision (AMEX: ISV) will present at 8:30 a.m. PT Sept.
19 at the ThinkEquity Partners' Fifth Annual Growth Conference in
San Francisco. Access is at www.insitevision.com.
LCA-Vision (NASDAQ: LCAV) will present at 9:30 a.m. ET Sept.
20 at the First Annual Maxim Group Growth Conference in New York
City. Access is at www.lasikplus.com.
:COMPANY
NEWS
Alcon (NYSE: ACL) has amended its tender offer for
Wavelight AG and waived the minimum tender offer acceptance
threshold of 75 percent of all WaveLight outstanding shares. This
followed news that Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, which owns
approximately a five percent stake in WaveLight AG, would tender
all of its WaveLight shares to Alcon at the EUR 15.00 per share
tender offer price. Carl Zeiss later withdrew its offer. Alcon
holds 53.60 percent of WaveLight shares through purchase,
contractual commitment or tender. The amendment extends the EUR 15
per share offer to Sept. 25. The offer price represents a 100
percent premium on the one-month (EUR 7.49) volume weighted average
stock exchange price as of the publication of the decision to
launch the tender offer on July 16.
A filing last Friday by Oakley (NYSE: OO) with the SEC
reveals that discussions leading to Luxottica’s (NYSE:
LUX) agreement to acquire Oakley went on for more than a year
before the deal was officially announced on June 20, according to
Vision Monday. According to Oakley’s preliminary proxy
statement for the transaction, filed with the SEC on Sept. 7,
Oakley’s chairman, Jim Jannard, was first contacted on April
13, 2006, by a representative of Rothschild, Luxottica’s
financial advisor, “to inform [Jannard] of Luxottica’s
potential interest in holding discussions with Oakley and to
discuss setting up a meeting.” Jannard and Oakley’s
CEO, Scott Olivet, subsequently met at Oakley’s headquarters
here with a Rothschild representative on May 19, 2006, to discuss a
possible deal. Not quite three weeks later, on June 6, the two
Oakley executives met with Luxottica CEO Andrea Guerra and Enrico
Cavatorta, Luxottica’s CFO, “to discuss
Luxottica’s interest in an expanded business relationship
with Oakley, including, possibly, a merger.” One month later,
Luxottica and Oakley signed a confidentiality agreement allowing
Luxottica to explore Oakley’s operations. On Dec. 5, 2006,
Oakley received a non-binding indication of interest from Luxottica
offering to acquire Oakley’s stock for $12.20 to $15.60 per
share in cash plus a stock consideration that took the total value
of the offer to $22.34 to $23.71 per share. After more than six
months of negotiations, Luxottica’s final offer for Oakley
was agreed upon at $29.30 in cash—for a total value of $2.1
billion—and the deal was announced.
Ophthalmic Imaging Systems (OTC BB: OISI.OB) has entered a
non-binding agreement to acquire Israeli MediVision Medical
Imaging Ltd., a majority shareholder in OIS. Under the terms of
the proposed agreement, MediVision's outstanding shares will be
converted into shares of OIS common stock at a yet to be determined
ratio. Also, outstanding options and warrants to purchase
MediVision shares will be converted into options or warrants to
purchase shares of OIS Common Stock. Once the acquisition is
completed, MediVision will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of
OIS. Additional details regarding the proposed acquisition will be
disclosed in a definitive agreement approved by both companies'
board of directors. The definitive agreement will then require
approval from both companies' shareholders before the acquisition
can be finalized.
|