Alcon Agrees to Buy Lensar in Deal Worth up to $430 Million

Alcon announced March 24 that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Lensar, including its Ally femtosecond laser cataract system, its Streamline software, and the Lensar legacy laser system.

Under the terms of the deal, Alcon will purchase all outstanding shares of Lensar for $14 per share in cash (an aggregate implied value of approximately $356 million). A contingent value right offering up to $2.75 per share in cash would raise the value of the transaction to $430 million, based on the achievement of 614 thousand cumulative procedures with Lensar’s products from Jan. 1, 2026, to Dec. 31, 2027.

The transaction is expected to close in mid- to late 2025, subject to customary conditions, including regulatory clearance and approval by Lensar shareholders.

David Endicott, chief executive officer of Alcon, said in a news release: “By leveraging our global footprint, we have the opportunity to deliver the benefits of advanced femtosecond laser technology to many more surgeons around the world and continue to improve efficiency in cataract surgery.”

Alcon, a Swiss company with US headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, currently markets the LenSx femto-cataract system. Femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery (FLACS) allows surgeons to use a computer-guided laser to address and manage visually significant astigmatism and perform corneal incisions, capsulotomy, and lens fragmentation, requiring less ultrasonic phacoemulsification energy and removing the need for blade incisions.

Lensar’s Ally system was originally intended to combine the functions of FLACS and phaco in a single console. The femto capability of the Ally was cleared by the US FDA in June 2022. Two years later, however, Lensar terminated its collaboration with Swiss company Oertli, which had been developing a compact phaco system for use with the Ally.

Lensar, of Orlando, Florida, said then that it remained committed to adding phaco to the Ally, but it later positioned the device as a robotic cataract system, saying that the Ally is the first system to combine robotic intelligence and precision with surgeon experience and expertise to deliver the most advanced cataract procedures.

Lensar reported 2024 revenue of $53.5 million, a 27 percent increase over $42.2 million in 2023.

The company said growth was primarily due to increases in Ally system placements and procedure volume. Lensar placed over 80 Ally systems in 2024, increasing the installed base to more than 135 systems and the combined installed base of Lensar and Ally systems to about 385—a 26 percent increase over 305 systems at the end of 2023.