BVI Medical is clear-eyed on its growth strategy, which is more than appropriate for a company that makes ophthalmology devices and supplies. It’s literally in the business of eyes.

Massachusetts-based BVI is using acquisitions to build a comprehensive product portfolio for its customers—a “one stop shop,” Todd Patriacca, the company’s CFO, told CFO Brew. Key acquisitions by the private equity-backed company include a Belgian intraocular lens (IOL) manufacturer in late 2018, and two years later, a Florida-based supplier of raw materials used in IOL production.

“We’ve got a really complete product offering for our customers to be able to go to one place and get the equipment they need for the surgery and all of the supporting materials,” according to Patriacca, who joined BVI in 2023.

Patriacca added that BVI’s acquisition strategy is now one of adding “complementary products” and growing its footprint. In 2023, it acquired Medical Mix, a provider of surgical ophthalmic products in Spain and Portugal.

Acquisitions like this “allow us to not only then go direct and capture that margin that the distributor was getting on top of our products, but also really give us more strategic ability to push more of our products through that sales organization,” Patriacca said.

To keep reading how BVI uses acquisitions to grow, click here.—AZ

The Fed may go easier on banks in 2025. Michael Barr, the Fed vice chair of supervision who promoted legislation that would require big banks to hold more capital in reserve, has announced he will resign his post by February 28 of this year. President-elect Trump will name one of two Republican Fed governors as his successor.

Barr was confirmed to his position by the Senate, and his term originally was to have ended in July 2026. He chose to step down earlier than that, he told the New York Times, to avoid a lengthy legal battle with the Trump administration over whether a president has the power to fire an officer of an independent federal agency.

“If it came to litigation on the merits, I would win,” Barr said. But he didn’t want to “spend the next couple of years fighting” about the issue in court. “And what I decided was that no, it’s not good for the Fed,” he said. “It would be a serious distraction from our ability to serve our mission.”

If Trump did fire Barr, and if courts upheld that decision, Trump might attempt to remove Fed chair Jerome Powell next, the New York Times posited.

Barr’s decision surprised some observers, who noted that the Fed has historically been politically independent. As late as last November, just a couple of weeks after the election, Barr told lawmakers that he planned to serve his full term.

Click here for more on Barr’s resignation.—CV

It’s been a little more than a year since the SEC’s controversial cybersecurity incident disclosure rule went into effect. The rule, which requires public companies to disclose a cybersecurity incident to the SEC within four days after it’s deemed material, was intended to boost disclosure consistency and transparency among investors. However, while more companies disclosed cyber incidents after the rule was enforced, the details provided in the filings were limited.

Living in a not-so-material world. According to a 2024 Paul Hastings report that examined 75 disclosures from 48 public companies between December 2023 and October 2024, there was a 60% uptick in the number of cyber incidents disclosed after the SEC’s cyber disclosure rule was enforced. However, less than 10% of the disclosed incidents included a description of the material impact of the incident. Michelle A. Reed, a lead author of the report and co-chair of Paul Hasting’s data privacy and cybersecurity practice, told IT Brew that the findings reflect companies’ concerns around SEC enforcement related to failing to disclose given the “squishiness” around materiality.

“Materiality isn’t just a quantitative measure, it’s a qualitative measure,” Reed said. “I think that part of the reason you see such increased disclosures and you may not see the description of specifically what the material impact was is because people are really looking at it on a qualitative basis and trying to avoid non-disclosure claims by the SEC.”

Click here to keep reading IT Brew’s story on the SEC cybersecurity rule.—BM