Revance Therapeutics, the maker of anti-wrinkle injections, has agreed to be acquired by privately held Crown Laboratories in a deal valued at $924 million, including debt. The move comes as it aims to compete better with rivals in the aesthetic products market. Revance manufactures Daxxify, which competes with AbbVie's Botox, while Tennessee-based Crown makes various skincare and aesthetics products like SkinPen for microneedling and anti-aging cream StriVectin. Crown said it had offered $6.66 per Revance share held, a nearly 89 percent premium to the stock's last close. The merger will allow access to a network of over 10,000 medical professionals, retailers, and an e-commerce channel, while also having an integrated manufacturing operation, the companies said.
Revance, which promotes its product to last twice as long as Botox, had initially priced it at a premium. In September of last year, the company slashed Daxxify's price to bring it on par with Botox after struggling to attract customers due to the higher price. Since the price cut, sales improvement have been gradual. Daxxify's net revenue increased 27 percent to $28.7 million in the second quarter. Sales of Botox for cosmetic and therapeutic use combined rose nearly 8 percent to more than $1.5 billion during that period. Revance had more than 7,500 customer accounts at the end of the second quarter, up from over 6,000 a year earlier. The company's shares lost about 90 percent of their value through Friday's close from the peak in May last year. Revance will no longer be traded on the Nasdaq after the completion of the deal, expected by the end of the year, the companies said.