Monday, March 15, 2010

Private Co., Act III -- Bausch and Lomb: Hassan Named Chairman of Board; Saunders CEO


At Public Companies -- Act I here; Act II is this blog most-generally (summarized here). I'll have more soon, but this Act III is going to play out largely in secret. Why? Because this is a "dark pharma/consumer health care" role for the two -- so whatever they do, it will be much harder to track -- as the company is not public (per Reuters):

. . . .Two former top executives of drugmaker Schering-Plough Corp were named on Monday as new leaders of privately owned eye-care company Bausch & Lomb.

Former Schering-Plough Chief Executive Officer Fred Hassan will be chairman of Bausch's board, while Brent Saunders, who previously served as president of Schering-Plough's consumer healthcare unit under Hassan, will be Bausch's CEO.

Both appointments are effective immediately, said Bausch, which is majority-owned by Warburg Pincus.

Bausch's Chairman and CEO Gerald Ostrov is retiring and will serve as a consultant to the new leaders. . . .

The company was taken private a few years back. Guess who took it private? That's right -- Warburg Pincus -- in a $4.5 billion buyout. Where Fred Hassan is now a senior advisor. Cozy.

This is a one meeting a month gig for Hassan. He was first named to the B&L board last year, just seven days after the bust-up with Merck closed. Yawn.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What value does/did this story have? "There may be something weird going on with B+L since a member of their board has ties to WP". It's not a conspiracy or a coincidence. You hire who you know and WP is in close contact with all B+L brass. If this is reflective of your journalistic reporting skills, you'll peak with a lowly blog. Bring something to the table we can chew on.

condor said...

Thanks -- I am no journalist. This is simply a record. A diary. A place to collect what happened on these topics.

This may help you, in understanding the larger significance of the above older historical piece of the overall narrative -- on this particular topic.

Namaste

condor said...

It is also significant that Hassan told people in the fall of 2009 that he would be out of the health care space, and took nearly $325 million as he left.

Astonishing that there was not even a one year "sit on the sidelines, with your legs corssed" clause for that kind of loot.

Just my $0.02 -- your mileage may vary. In fact, I am sure it does.

Thanks for stopping in!

Namaste