Spectrum Invests In Shaser Bioscience

• Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. acquired a 56% interest in Shaser Bioscience, Inc., a privately-held global technology company that develops energy-based, aesthetic dermatological platforms for home use devices, for $50 million in cash.

According to the company, the transaction provides Spectrum Brands with exclusive rights to Shaser Bioscience’s entire range of technology platforms and establishes Spectrum Brands’ Remington personal care division as a leader in large and rapidly growing segments of the worldwide beauty and skin care retail device market.

Building on a commercial partnership established in 2008 between Spectrum Brands and Shaser Bioscience, through which the companies have jointly developed and brought to market the Remington i-Light Pro light-based hair removal system, the controlling interest in Shaser Bioscience will become part of Spectrum Brands’ Remington personal care division. The i-Light Pro, introduced in continental Europe in early 2010 and in the US in 2011 following clearance by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is a dermatologist-recommended hair removal system utilizing the same intense pulsed light (IPL) technology used by dermatologists to achieve professional results at home.

Executives at Spectrum Brands say that they are creating a new consumables business within Remington to focus on developing a full line of energy-based, companion aesthetic dermatology devices and companion products using Shaser Bioscience technology to address the large, growing and unmet global demand for skin care solutions for conditions including unwanted signs of aging, acne and blemishes, spider veins and other retail aesthetic applications to be announced in the future.

Combined with a global retail hair removal market estimated at $16.5 billion annually, the worldwide market for home use devices that address these conditions is estimated at more than $50 billion annually.

Spectrum expects that the acquisition will add substantial incremental revenue to Remington’s consumables business, approximately doubling consumables business revenues in fiscal 2013 and continuing rapid top-line growth in fiscal 2014.