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Bausch settles patent suit
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January 27, 2000: 8:41 a.m. ET
Eye health-care concern also beats 4Q earnings forecast by 1 cent a share
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Bausch & Lomb Inc. announced settlement of a 6-year-old patent infringement lawsuit and slightly better-than- expected earnings Thursday.
The eye health-care company said it will receive $25 million in the settlement with Alcon Laboratories, a subsidiary of Nestle SA, of a suit over an enzymatic contact lens cleaner. Bausch & Lomb will record that settlement as income equal to 27 cents a share in the current quarter. It also said it will receive royalties from Alcon for the next eight years. Officials of Fort Worth, Texas-based Alcon could not be reached for comment Thursday.
In the fourth quarter, Bausch earned $51.4 million, or 88 cents a share, before a restructuring charge. Analysts surveyed by First Call were looking for 87 cents a share. In the year-earlier period, earnings were $37.5 million, or 66 cents a share.
Including special charges and items, net income was $17.2 million, or 29 cents a diluted share in the quarter, compared with a net loss of $43.1 million, or 76 cents a share, a year earlier.
Revenue from continuing businesses rose 9 percent to $466.6 million from $428.5 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 11 percent, adjusted for currency swings.
For the full year, earnings from continuing operations before charges and special items rose to $132.6 million, or $2.26 a diluted share, from $104.6 million, or $1.86 a share, in 1998. Revenue from continuing businesses rose 10 percent to $1.8 billion from $1.6 billion in 1998.
In trading Wednesday, shares of Bausch & Lomb (BOL) were down 1-3/4 to 56-1/4. 
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Bausch & Lomb
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