Overland Park, KS, June 13, 2008 - MidOcean Partners, a leading middle market private equity fund, and Bushnell Outdoor Products, the worldwide leader in sports optics, premium eyewear, and outdoor accessories for 60 years, announced today that its portfolio company Bushnell has acquired the Simmons brand and certain other assets of Simmons Outdoor Corporation from Meade instruments Corp. (NasdaqGM: MEAD), a California based publicly traded company.
Simmons is a provider of high quality, innovative optical products. The acquisition includes a complete line of riflescopes and binoculars, as well as spotting scopes.
This acquisition continues the expansion of the family of outdoor brands under the Bushnell Outdoor Products umbrella. Since 1983 Simmons has provided the hunter and sportsmen performance and long-lasting value led by the Master Series line of riflescopes. For the hunter and the sports fan the Simmon’s ProSport compact and full size line of binoculars provides fully coated optics with edge-to-edge clarity.
“The Simmons line of optical products provides a strategic asset and a valuable brand to our company,” said Joe Messner, President and CEO of Bushnell Outdoor Products. “We want to continue to provide value and service to the loyal Simmons customers and consumers that they have grown to expect over the Past 30 years.” added Messner.
“Acquisition of the Simmons line is consistent with MidOcean’s strategy of expanding the Bushnell platform through select strategic acquisitions,” said David Basto, a Principal at MidOcean Partners. “Our goal is to identify attractive brands which we can improve by leveraging Bushnell‘s strong distribution channel and management expertise.”
The parties signed a definitive purchase agreement and the transaction closed on June 12, 2008.
This marks the seventh acquisition Bushnell has made since 2001. The most recent was the purchase of the Kolpin and Final Approach brands in 2007. Prior to that, Michael’s of Oregon in 2005 with the addition of the Uncle Mike’s, Hoppe’s, Butler Creek, Stoney Point, Uncle Mikes Law Enforcement brands. The Tosca sports optics brand was added in 2002 and Bolle and Serengeti premium eyewear brands were acquired in 2001, along with Moonlight night vision products.
