Dive Brief:
- Alcon and LENSAR agreed to call off their merger, Alcon said Monday. Alcon CEO David Endicott said the delay and costs associated with a Federal Trade Commission review made the transaction unattractive to pursue further.
- In a Tuesday statement, the Federal Trade Commission said the merger would have combined the two most significant players in the market for laser systems used in femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery, or FLACS, threatening to raise prices and reduce innovation.
- The termination is the second aborted acquisition attempt by Alcon, after shareholders of STAAR Surgical, a maker of implantable lenses, in January rejected Alcon’s $1.6 billion offer.
Dive Insight:
Alcon and LENSAR announced the deal a year ago. At the time, Alcon said it would pay up to about $430 million to acquire LENSAR, whose computer-guided laser technology is used to perform cataract surgery. Alcon had expected to close the transaction in mid- to late 2025.
The FTC said Alcon and LENSAR were locked in a price war that benefited doctors offering FLACS-assisted cataract procedures and their patients. The “vigorous competition” between the two companies also drove innovation in the FLACS market, the agency said.
“Competitors simply cannot attempt to buy out rivals to get out from the heat of pricing and innovation competition,” Daniel Guarnera, director of the FTC’s bureau of competition, said in the statement.
Alcon and LENSAR abandoned the merger rather than risk facing the FTC in court, the agency said. The FTC’s work opposing the deal also will protect American manufacturing jobs, Guarnera added.
In a separate statement, LENSAR said it agreed with Alcon that terminating the merger was in the best interest of both companies. LENSAR said it would retain a $10 million deposit specified in the merger agreement.
