Iridex has acquired certain assets from RetinaLabs, a privately held company based in Atlanta, Georgia. RetinaLabs develops and markets retinal instrumentation used by ophthalmologists to perform vitreoretinal procedures in the operating room and the surgery center.
Pursuant to the terms of the purchase agreement, Iridex has acquired substantially all of the assets of RetinaLabs, including its existing product family together with certain additional intellectual property that Iridex anticipates incorporating into future products.
Iridex said that the purchase price for the acquired assets consisted of $250,000 in cash consideration and 115,000 unregistered shares of Iridex common stock issued at closing, and an earn-out. The earn-out is tied to future revenues and could result in additional cash and share consideration to RetinaLabs based on the future performance of the acquired products and intellectual property. Other terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Theodore Boutacoff, president and chief executive officer of Iridex, said: “We have previously stated that our growth strategy will consist of organic initiatives supplemented by acquisitions. This acquisition represents a step towards executing this strategy and we expect it to be accretive in the near term. The majority of the products we acquired from RetinaLabs are consumables with strong gross margins.
“These products will be sold through our existing sales channels and we expect that sales of these products will add to our profitability. In addition, Frank Tighe, president of RetinaLabs, will join Iridex as vice president of Vitreoretinal Instrumentation. We believe this acquisition is illustrative of how we can strategically augment our internal R&D to generate an ongoing flow of innovative products that provide value to our customers and enhance Iridex’s growth.”