Advanced Medical Optics (EYE)

AMO announced on January 8th its plan to acquire IntraLase Corp. (Nasdaq: ILSE) for approximately $808 million in cash.  The IntraLase acquisition complements AMO’s fundamental growth strategy to be the eye care professionals’ complete refractive solution by strengthening its portfolio of corneal and lens-based products and services that address a lifetime of refractive vision needs.  AMO has arranged committed financing from a consortium of banks to complete the transaction, which is subject to Intralase stockholder approval as well as regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.  Assuming successful close of the transaction early in the second quarter of 2007, AMO today reiterated its financial guidance, as follows:

This guidance includes the acquisition of WaveFront Sciences, Inc., a leading provider of proprietary wavefront diagonistic systems for refractive surgery and medical research.  As a result of the IntraLase and WaveFront Sciences transactions, AMO expects amortization to increase by approximately $30 million on an annualized basis, which would bring the company’s total annual amortization to approximately $70 million, or about $0.70 per share on an after-tax basis.