Bausch & Lomb Optical Company
 |
|
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Medical instruments |
| Founded |
Rochester, New York (1853) |
| Founder |
John Bausch Henry Lomb |
| Headquarters | Bridgewater, New Jersey |
|
Key people
|
Dan Wechsler, Executive VP and Group Chairman |
| Products | Eye-care products and equipment |
| Revenue |
 $1.51 Billion USD (2007) |
|
$200 Million USD (2007) |
|
|
Number of employees
|
~12,000 (2018) |
| Parent | Valeant Pharmaceuticals |
| Website | www |
Bausch + Lomb is an American eye health products company based in Bridgewater, New Jersey. It is one of the world's largest suppliers of contact lenses, lens care products, pharmaceuticals, intraocular lenses, and other eye surgery products. Founded in Rochester, New York in 1853 by optician John Bausch and financier Henry Lomb, Bausch + Lomb is one of the oldest continually operating companies in the US.
Bausch + Lomb was a public company listed on the NYSE until it was acquired by private equity firm Warburg Pincus in 2007. In May 2013, it was announced that Canadian-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals would acquire Bausch + Lomb from Warburg Pincus for $8.57 billion in cash. The deal, which was approved by shareholders, included $4.2 billion earmarked to pay down Bausch + Lomb debt and closed on August 5, 2013. Today, the company employs about 12,000 people in 36 countries.
In 1853, John Bausch and Henry Lomb, both German immigrants, established a small but ambitious workshop producing monocles in Rochester, New York. By 1861, their operation had expanded to manufacturing vulcanite rubber eyeglass frames and other precision vision products.
During the American Civil War, the Union blockade caused the price of gold and European horn to rise dramatically. This resulted in a growing demand for the Bausch & Lomb spectacles made from vulcanite.
In 1876, Ernst Gundlach joined the company as it began to manufacture microscopes. Later that year, the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company won a distinction at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. The company also produced photographic lenses (1883), spectacle lenses (1889), microtomes (1890), binoculars and telescopes (1893). From 1892 in cooperation with Zeiss in Germany, the company produced optical lenses. In this manner, at the end of the 19th century, the product range included eyeglasses, microscopes and binoculars, as well as projectors, camera lenses and camera diaphragms.
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Wikipedia