KKR Buys 1-800-Contacts in Multibillion-Dollar Deal
The private equity giant KKR (NYSE: KKR) has swooped in to buy 1-800-Contacts, a name we might all recognize from its catchy commercials. In case you don’t know, 1-800 Contacts is the largest seller of contact lenses in the U.S., serving more than 20 million customers for the last 25 years. The growing portfolio of innovative 1-800 Contacts brands includes Liingo Eyewear, 6over6, Boomerang, and Premium Vision. KKR is buying the company from AEA Investors for approximately $3.1 billion, according to sources cited in a report in PE Hub. AEA Investors has been the majority shareholder of 1-800 Contacts since 2015 when it purchased the company from Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. AEA... Read More »
Trulieve Cannabis Boosts Its Market Reach
Trulieve Cannabis Corp. (OTC: TCNNF), a vertically integrated “seed-to-sale” company and the first licensed medical cannabis company in the state of Florida, announced two new transactions last week. M&A activity in the medical marijuana market has been quiet throughout 2020 and 2019, after experiencing somewhat of a boom in 2018, but Trulieve Cannabis’ new deals might signal another resurgence. The company purchased Pennsylvania-based PurePenn LLC, which produces pharmaceutical-grade medical marijuana products, including concentrates, flower, oil, capsules and tinctures, and Keystone Relief Centers LLC (dba Solevo Wellness), which owns and operates three medical... Read More »
Triage Medical Staffing and TaleMed Merge
A pair of the nation’s largest healthcare staffing firms are merging. Ohama, Nebraska-based Triage Medical Staffing is acquiring TaleMed, LLC, creating one of the nation’s largest dual-threat Nursing and Allied Health recruitment agencies. No terms were disclosed, but the combined company is expected to have $200 million in annual revenues. TaleMed provides contingent staffing solutions to healthcare systems and hospitals nationwide through direct contract relationships and is consistently rated as one of the top travel healthcare companies. The company is also a top-tier provider with many prominent managed service providers. In recent years, Triage has experienced accelerated... Read More »
MOB Deals Accelerate in the Third Quarter
Medical office building (MOB) transactions have been flowing steadily throughout the third quarter, with 11 deals on the books so far according to DSO. Most deals are focused on facilities in the Southeastern region of the United States, such as Alabama, North and South Carolina, and Georgia, and the buyers are a mix of REITs, private real estate investment firms, and developers. So far in the third quarter, over 376,000 square feet of MOBs have been sold, with disclosed prices totaling approximately $113.6 million. Unlike other sectors in healthcare, MOBs seem to have benefited from a COVID-19 environment, as noted by JLL ( NYSE: JLL) in a report published in July. The COVID-19 pandemic... Read More »
CRO M&A Market in 2020 (So Far)
There haven’t been many deals targeting contract research organizations (CRO) in 2020, especially compared to previous years, which makes sense. Life science companies are all slowing down clinical trials (COVID-19 vaccine research excluded) to adhere to social distancing guidelines, meaning CRO services are just not in as high demand. For 2020, only 10% of deals in the Other Services sector have targeted a CRO company (14 deals). To put that in context, CROs were targeted in 15% (29 transactions) of deals in the Other Services sector for 2019, according to The 2020 Health Care Services Acquisition Report. There haven’t been many headline deals this year for the CRO market.... Read More »