Activist investor Jana Partners takes stake in Cooper Companies, sources say (updated)

The Cooper Companies

20/10/2025 02:29

Adds Bausch + Lomb's response in paragraph 6

Oct 19 (Reuters) - Activist investor Jana Partners has built a stake in medical device maker Cooper Companies COO.O and plans to push for strategic alternatives, two sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

        Jana, one of the industry's most prominent corporate agitators, also plans to push Cooper to improve capital allocation that could boost returns, the sources said, requesting anonymity as they are not permitted to discuss the matter publicly.

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported Jana's position in Cooper earlier in the day, said the fund may push it to consider combining its contact-lens unit with rival Bausch + Lomb BLCO.TO.

Cooper in August had lowered its annual revenue forecast due to a slowdown in demand across certain geographies.

CooperVision, the company's contact lens division, reported quarterly sales of $718.4 million, missing analysts' average estimate of $721.8 million. Cooper also has a subsidiary called CooperSurgical, a fertility technology company.

Bausch + Lomb declined to comment.

Meanwhile, representatives for Jana Partners and Cooper Companies did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for a comment.

"A potential combination with Cooper would strengthen competition and create a more scaled company in the contact-lens segment," Bausch + Lomb Chief Executive Brent Saunders was quoted in the WSJ report.

Jana also believes Cooper Companies' strategy has generated little value for shareholders, leaving a more complicated business with poor capital allocation, the sources told Reuters.

 (Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru and Svea Herbst-Bayliss in New York; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

 ((rishabh.jaiswal@thomsonreuters.com;))