Smile Brands Group Inc. in Irvine was acquired by private-equity firm Grpyhon Investors in San Francisco on undisclosed terms.
Smile Brands provides services to dental offices.
Gryphon backed a predecessor firm of Smile Brands—Bright Now Dental Inc.—from 1998 to 2005. Bright Now was co-founded by Steven Bilt and Bradley Schmidt, who later parted ways with the company.
Gryphon, Bilt and Schmidt last year formed OneSmile LLC to buy dental practices.
Bilt and Schmidt will return as chief executive and chief financial officer of Smile Brands, respectively.
Smile Brands was No. 41 on the Business Journal’s 2016 list of OC-based private companies with about $500 million in revenue and 425 local employees. It has about 4,500 workers companywide and 350 practices under three brands—Bright Now Dental, Monarch Dental, and Castle Dental—in 17 states.
—Paul Hughes
