Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical Optics Inc. on Wednesday blasted ValueAct Capital Partners LP, its third-largest shareholder, for opposing its $4.3 billion takeover bid for rival Bausch & Lomb Inc.
Chief Executive James Mazzo, in a letter to ValueAct, said he was “surprised and disappointed” by ValueAct’s opposition to the Bausch bid.
ValueAct’s position was “hard to understand” given that the hedge fund earlier expressed interest in helping to finance the deal, Mazzo said.
Mazzo reiterated the proposed deal offered what he called “a unique and compelling value-creating opportunity.”
San Francisco-based ValueAct, in a regulatory filing, said it plans to vote against Advanced Medical’s takeover bid for Bausch. It also sent a letter to Mazzo saying that the deal would reduce its returns and expose Advanced Medical to “unacceptable risk” and added it doubted Advanced Medical’s ability to integrate Bausch.
ValueAct, which is known as an activist investor that urges companies to make changes aimed at boosting a company’s value, now holds about 8.8 million, or 14.8% of the eye device and contact lens care maker. Fidelity Management and Research and MFS Investments are Advanced Medical’s largest shareholders.
Rochester, N.Y.-based Bausch said Tuesday that it remains in talks with Advanced Medical, though a rival $3.67 billion bid by Warburg Pincus LLC, a private equity firm, has received regulatory clearance.
