NEWS TRENDS

After what has been a difficult year for Bausch & Lomb (Rochester, NY), the eye health company announced that it may be bought out by affiliates of private equity firm Warburg Pincus. The nearly $4.5 billion deal would also cover about $830 million in debt.

Ronald Zarrella, Bausch & Lomb's chairman and CEO, stated in a news release that becoming a private company would give it the “flexibility to focus our long-term strategic direction to be a global leader” in providing its innovative eye products.

Bausch & Lomb's board of directors unanimously approved the agreement, and at press time, they recommended that the company's shareholders do the same. However, Advanced Medical Optics (Santa Ana, CA) also said it was considering making a bid for the company.

Last year, Bausch & Lomb faced a highly publicized recall of contaminated contact lens solution that was linked to severe eye infections. This past March, it also issued a limited recall of certain lots of its lens care solution products. Some analysts have been speculating that last year's recall may have played a role in the acquisition and also raised the possibility that Bausch & Lomb could potentially go public again in a few years.

During the past 30 years, Warburg Pincus has invested more than $4 billion in more than 100 healthcare companies.