Canadian giant Valeant buys eyecare firm Bausch & Lomb for $8.7 billion
Canada’s largest drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals is buying Bausch & Lomb , the eye-care company owned by Warburg Pincus, for about $8.7 billion .
Bausch & Lomb: $8.7 billion deal
That includes $4.2 billion that Valeant will use to pay off Bausch & Lomb debt, the companies said in a statement.
Bausch & Lomb, bought by Warburg in a 2007 leveraged buyout, filed in March for an initial public offering after trying - and failing - to sell itself for at least $10 billion.
Montreal-based Valeant, said Bloomberg, makes about 25 deals a year, and won’t rule out other deals while it digests Bausch & Lomb, CEO Mike Pearson said in a telephone interview .
“We’ll never say never,” he said. “The rest of this year we’ll be largely focused on excellent integration of this deal.”
Valeant expects $800 million in annual cost savings by the end of next year.
Its existing eye-care businesses will be added to Bausch & Lomb's to create a division that will have 2013 revenue of more than $3.5 billion, with
18,000 employees once the deal is completed