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Potential CooperVision–Bausch + Lomb merger floated by investor
Potential CooperVision–Bausch + Lomb merger floated by investor
Listen to this articleLeaders at CooperVision and Bausch + Lomb Corp. had little to say Monday regarding a potential deal floated by a Cooper Cos. investor that could combine the rivals’ contact lens businesses.
New York City-based Jana Partners, an investment firm that has built a stake in Cooper Cos., CooperVision’s parent company, plans to push for strategic alternatives — including a potential merger between CooperVision and Bausch + Lomb — according to sources cited by The Wall Street Journal.
CooperVision officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bausch + Lomb’s chairman and CEO, Brent Saunders, weighed in on the theoretical deal.
“A potential combination with Cooper would strengthen competition and create a more scaled company in the contact-lens segment,” Saunders told WSJ on Sunday.
A spokesperson for Bausch + Lomb said the company had no additional comment beyond Saunders’ remarks, emphasizing that Bausch + Lomb is not working with Jana Partners or advocating for any specific outcome, calling it a matter between Cooper and its shareholders.
Both firms maintain sizable operations in the Greater Rochester region.
CooperVision, one of the world’s leading contact lens manufacturers, employs 1,629 people across three local sites, ranking as the region’s second-largest manufacturer, according to the Rochester Business Journal’s most recent data.
Bausch + Lomb, headquartered in Vaughan, Ontario, with U.S. corporate offices in Bridgewater, N.J., employs 1,168 people locally and approximately 13,000 worldwide, with a presence in nearly 100 countries.
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