This blog is primarily about the Buyouts and Mergers happening in the industry!

Quite a few laser manufacturers have been bought out or merging over the past few years. Some since the economic slow down and others prior to it. I believe a lot of this is primarily based on a slow economy, but a huge increase in the preowned laser market has to be affecting the manufacturer’s bottom line as well.

Leasing requirements have gotten a lot stricter. Approval rates and the approval amount has also decreased. I can remember when physicians could very easily get approved for a 150k loan with a five line credit application fresh out of medical school. Needless to say this has changed!

Increased competition in the market place has not only lower prices for lasers but also the rates for procedures. I remember the hay day when a laser owner could be paid off a 5 year lease in 2-3 years or less. Companies like Living Social and Groupon are offering deals that make you wonder how a business is making money let alone paying off any loan. The pay off period for a leased laser went from 2-3 years on average to 4-5 years. Manufactures would like to see a repeat customer a lot sooner than 4-5 years!

On the technology side the industry hasn’t see any real advances for certain lasers. Laser hair removal lasers really haven’t changed much. The technology with the Diode, Alexandrite and YAG lasers are pretty much the same. Yes the spot sizes are larger and some lasers are quicker reducing procedure time, but the long term treatment results appear to be the same. IPL (intense pulsed light) may prove to have more uses in the future than true lasers. At the time of writing this blog Radio Frequency, ultrasound and other non invasive body sculpting technology is keeping the industry interesting.

The pay off period for a leased laser went from 2-3 years on average to 4-5 years. Manufactures would like to see a repeat customer a lot sooner than 4-5 years!

I don’t believe lasers being manufactured overseas have any real impact on the buyouts and mergers were seeing. Quite a bit of the lasers being offered are not FDA cleared and the quality (I should say lack of quality) leaves them in a category not to be considered. If the quality improves and more systems are FDA cleared, we could see Asia taking over the market with very attractive pricing. Manufacturers here and in other parts of the world won’t be able to compete. Wouldn’t be the first time!

Whether what we are seeing is from a slow economy, saturated market, increasing preowned market or all of the above, you can bet the landscape will look a lot different when things get back on track. a few laser companies will have multiple product lines under one umbrella but I cant imagine we will by buying from only 2-3 laser manufacturer giants in the future. There will always be new smaller companies with new technology!