CL Sales Up

The financial blog Zack.com, a Forbes.com blog, reports Cooper Companies' current financial success comes from its Toric line. The sales for the company's vision segment "were up 10% from last year to $263 million. From that group, it’s Toric products, also known as soft contact lenses, saw the biggest gains, up 14% to $78 million. Its highest revenue product from this segment, non single-use sphere, was up a solid 10% to $110 million." The question is why in such a stagnant economy are CLs selling well? Maybe: that which was once considered a luxury is now a necessity.

Alcon Now Part of Novartis--Finally

YahooFinance posted the following: "Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis AG said Wednesday it has reached a deal with minority shareholders of Alcon Inc. to complete its $51 billion takeover of the eye care company, the largest such deal in Swiss corporate history. Novartis said the cost of acquiring the remaining minority stake in Alcon of 23 percent will be $12.9 billion -- or about $1 billion dollars more than it had originally offered."

Forbes headlines the deal: "Novartis Is Eye-Care King After Acquiring Alcon."