Bausch & Lomb to Sell Sunglass Business

Bausch & Lomb Inc. said Wednesday it plans to sell its sunglass business that includes the Ray-Ban brand for $640 million to Italy’s Luxottica Group.

Luxottica makes eyeglass frames in the medium- and premium-priced categories with brand names such as Giorgio Armani, Brooks Brothers and Anne Klein, and it owns the LensCrafters retail chain.

Bausch & Lomb controls about 40% of the global premium-sunglass business, which also includes brands such as Revo, Killer Loop and Arnette priced above $30.

The Ray-Ban line was developed at Bausch & Lomb in the 1920s, to help U.S. Army Air Corps pilots cope with glare. The distinctive black-frame Ray-Bans were a big hit in the mid-1980s after Tom Cruise wore them in the movie “Risky Business.”

But the sunglass business has struggled of late to turn a profit as rivals such as Irvine-based Oakley Inc. gained with contemporary styles aimed at young customers.

More than half of the Bausch & Lomb sunglass unit’s 2,800 employees work in the United States, most of them in California, Texas and New York. There are no plans to move the jobs to Agordo, Italy, where Luxottica is based, said a Bausch & Lomb spokeswoman.

Bausch & Lomb stock fell $1 to close at $78 on the New York Stock Exchange.