NetOptix to Sell Medical, Healthcare Businesses

STURBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 16 -- NetOptix Corp. has agreed to sell its Leisegang Medical Inc. and related women's health businesses, along with assets relating thereto, to CooperSurgical Inc., a unit of The Cooper Companies Inc. The sale will include NetOptix's German-based operating unit Leisegang GmbH, its Canadian-based unit Galenica Inc., and Leisegang Medical's operations in Boca Raton, Florida. NetOptix has reported a sale price of approximately $10 million, to be paid in cash; the closing is scheduled for January 31, 2000.
NetOptix announced that it intends to use the net proceeds -- after paying or providing for transaction costs, closing escrows and retained Leisegang Medical business liabilities -- to reduce debt and fund research and development activities and additional production capacity for its dense wavelength division multiplexer business. The company's dense WDM business operates through NetOptix's Optical Filter Corp. subsidiary in Natick, Mass., and its German-based OFC GmbH subsidiary.