, Columnist
An Alcon Sale Will Take a Bargain Price
There's not much of a market for a declining eye-care business.
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Novartis AG's consideration of a spinoff or sale of its Alcon eye-care business just got serious; Bloomberg News reported Thursday the company has hired Bank of America to review its options.
It's eminently reasonable for the company to consider it, as my colleague Chris Hughes and I wrote when the company aired the notion in January. The declining business has become more trouble than it's worth. And Novartis could use the money to supplement its growing generics business, or to bolster its all-important pharma division as its best-selling medicine Gleevec faces generic competition.