BD and Gregory to Merge

Promising a new company chock full with innovative backpack designs, carabiners, ice tools, and backcountry ski gear, Black Diamond Equipment Ltd. today announced an intention to take its company public and simultaneously merge with the operations of backpack maker Gregory Mountain Products Inc.

The structure of the agreement will have Clarus Corporation — a “well financed, public company with no operations” — concurrently acquire Black Diamond and Gregory Mountain Products. It will then take both companies public and name the new and combined company Black Diamond Equipment.

The purchase consideration, according to a press statement from Clarus Corporation, values both acquisitions at approximately $135 million. The combination of Clarus, Black Diamond, and Gregory intends to “serve as a public company platform within the outdoor equipment and lifestyle markets with opportunities for growth both organically and through targeted, strategic acquisitions,” the statement continues.

Will big business crush BD’s soul? Not so said Peter Metcalf, CEO of Black Diamond. “The deal we are announcing today is as innovative and appropriate a structure as that created 21 years ago. It will insure that the golden years of Black Diamond are not behind us but clearly ahead.”

For more details go here: www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/about-us/company

—Stephen Regenold