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Artful
07-26-2016, 09:10 PM
http://www.guns.com/2016/07/25/smith-wesson-acquires-crimson-trace/

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Smith & Wesson acquires Crimson Trace7/25/16 (http://www.guns.com/2016/07/25/smith-wesson-acquires-crimson-trace/)| by Daniel Terrill (http://www.guns.com/author/daniel/)
(http://www.guns.com/2016/07/25/smith-wesson-acquires-crimson-trace/#)
(http://www.guns.com/2016/07/25/smith-wesson-acquires-crimson-trace/#)

http://14544-presscdn-0-64.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/SW-CT.jpg
A Smith & Wesson pistol equipped with a Crimson Trace laser sight. (Photo: Youtube)
Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (https://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CustomContentDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=750001&catalogId=750051&content=11001) announced plans Monday to buy leading laser sight company Crimson Trace (https://www.crimsontrace.com/)for $95 million.

The gun maker signed a definitive agreement to acquire the 22-year-old company with cash on hand. Smith & Wesson’s president and chief executive officer, James Debney, said Crimson Trace will serve as the gun maker’s new electro-optics division and continue to operate out of a 50,000 square foot facility in Wilsonville, Oregon.

According to the announcement, Crimson Trace has generated a 10-year compound annual revenue growth rate in excess of 10 percent and for the past 12 months raked in $44 million in revenue. Jeffrey Buchanan, Smith & Wesson’s chief financial officer, said the purchase will close in three to six weeks.

For more than two decades, Crimson Trace has supplied laser sights for civilian, military and law enforcement around the world and has teamed with numerous firearm manufacturers, including Smith & Wesson. It currently offers more than 225 products.

Crimson Trace’s Lane Tobiassen, who joined the company in 2005, will serve as president of the new Smith & Wesson division and will report directly to Debney. “We believe that our capabilities, combined with inorganic opportunities to acquire related technologies, will expand the reach of our existing market footprint,” he said.

The Massachusetts’s gun maker announced the purchase shortly before markets closed Monday and ended the day with shares soaring to highest on company record at $29.37.

Debney explained the purchase was part of Smith & Wesson’s ongoing strategy (http://www.guns.com/2016/01/28/smith-wesson-to-expand-in-outdoor-goods-hunting-guns/) for expansion and broaden its offerings that cover other aspects of shooting and outdoor goods. Last week, Smith & Wesson bought (http://www.guns.com/2016/07/20/smith-wesson-acquires-knife-company/) another longtime partner, knife company Taylor Brand.

Valued at $60 billion, the broader outdoor-sporting goods market is roughly four times larger than the U.S. gun industry. Adding an electro-optic division splits the company into four operating groups, which also includes firearms, accessories and outdoor goods.

The accessories division, formally established (http://www.guns.com/2016/04/13/smith-wesson-re-organizes-operations-with-new-division/) in April but in the works after acquiring Battenfeld Technologies in December 2014, brought in an extra $65.3 million in revenue. Partly thanks to the accessory wing, Smith & Wesson increased annual revenue by 31 percent, bringing the total to $722.9 million by the end of FY2016.
Article updated 4:10 pm CST on July 25, 2016

Earlwb
07-26-2016, 10:38 PM
I do like how they integrate the laser sight device in many of the guns that have it. it is part of the gun proper, not just stuck on like in the past. My first laser sight was a huge unit, the size of the short length, large round red dot sights. It was big and heavy in comparison to what the current laser sights are like.

So yeah I can see S&W buying the company. I can hope they don't screw it up though. Numerous companies have been bought by other companies and they wind up being worse off for it.

SierraHunter
07-26-2016, 10:54 PM
I wonder if they will still make lasers for other brand firearms.

contender1
07-27-2016, 11:23 AM
"I can hope they don't screw it up though. Numerous companies have been bought by other companies and they wind up being worse off for it."

T/C Arms comes to mind,,,,,!

Mk42gunner
07-27-2016, 12:01 PM
I wonder if they will still make lasers for other brand firearms.
I thought that too, then realized if they quit making sights for other companies guns, they would be shooting themselves in the foot -- so to speak. In other words, it would have been a waste of $95 million dollars to do that.

Robert