Bausch & Lomb to Miss Estimates, Slash Jobs

Bausch & Lomb Inc. said its fourth-quarter and full-year profit will miss estimates and the company will cut 350 more jobs, citing a slowdown in sales of laser vision-correction machines. The world’s largest eye-care company also said it settled a patent lawsuit filed by rival Visx Inc., agreeing to pay Visx an unspecified royalty for each Lasik eye-surgery procedure in the U.S. done using Bausch & Lomb’s lasers. Bausch & Lomb said it expects fourth-quarter profit in the range of 69 cents to 71 cents a share, short of the 73-cent average estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial. For fiscal 2001, the Rochester, N.Y.-based company expects earnings of $2.35 to $2.40 a share, well below the $2.70 average estimate. A slowing U.S. economy has cut demand for laser eye surgery, an elective procedure most insurance plans don’t cover, Bausch & Lomb said. Bausch & Lomb’s job cuts are in addition to the 450 announced in October. The company employs 13,000 people worldwide. Shares in Bausch & Lomb fell $1.25 to close at $37.75, while shares of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Visx rose $1 to close at $12, both on the NYSE.