Santa Ana-based Bright Now Dental Inc., a dental practice management company, has traded hands between private equity firms.
San Francisco’s Gryphon Investors Inc. said last week it sold its majority stake in Bright Now to Freeman Spogli & Co. of Los Angeles.
The companies didn’t disclose terms.
Bright Now counts yearly sales of about $350 million, up from $30 million in 1998, when Gryphon bought a controlling stake.
The company operates dental offices and provides business support services to those offices.
Bright Now has boosted its market share through a pair of acquisitions in the past couple of years. In 2003, it bought Monarch Dental Corp., a Dallas-based company that provided business support services for dentists, for about $11 million.
Last year, it paid some $53 million for Castle Dental Centers Inc., a Houston company with 73 offices in Texas, Florida, Tennessee and California.
