Thanks, I've asked for the package. In the meantime do you know how many units they (BEAM) have operating, and have planned short-term?
I plan to buy both Visx and Summit, in that order. They both seem undervalued. It seems to me that Summit has bitten off a lot buying lenscrafters(?) and going down to the retail level. They don't seem to handle Wall St. well either.
On the other hand, Wall St. seems to be penalising them for the loss asscoiated with restructuring the retail business without crediting that side with any value. They have much greater sales than Visx, largely, i'm sure, from old-fashioned lenses.
From what I have read, there seems no need to involve an opthamologist with these lasers, but a turf war is already underway. The fastest way for the technology to spread is for VISX to sell them to the opthamologists, get the technology established, and then for Summit to persuade the FDA that opthamologists are redundant. This argues against a merger: the opthamologists wouldn't take to kindly to buying an expensive machine from a company that was planning to employ relatively low paid help to operate machines in competition.
In a sense, notwithstanding lawsuit and complaint to FDA, the competition b/n VISX and Summit is limited anyway. They split the royalties on each procedure down the middle, and that is, I think, $250. All those bundles of $125 must represent a significant portion of both companies revenues.
Mmm, maybe I should reverse that order of purchase. Any comments anyone? |
