In Brief: Summit Technology/LCA-Vision

Summit Technology/LCA-Vision: Summit agrees to divest its chain of photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) Vision Centers to LCA-Vision under an agreement announced July 23. Under the terms of the deal, LCA will issue about 17 mil. shares of its common stock for all of Refractive Centers International -- the Summit subsidiary which owns and operates the Vision Center business, including 19 centers across the U.S. The deal is valued at about $46.8 mil. based on LCA's July 22 closing price of 2-3/4. The transaction, still subject to standard regulatory conditions, also is awaiting "the closing of bank financing by LCA," Summit says. Summit announced its plan to either sell or spin off the business earlier this year due to its drain on company resources and its negative impact on customer relations with ophthalmic surgeons ("The Gray Sheet" Feb. 3, In Brief). Upon completion of the sale, LCA "will have over 40 vision correction centers in the U.S., Canada and Europe, making it one of the nation's largest providers of laser vision correction," Summit notes...