Waterpik began in 1962 as Aqua Tec Corporation. with the invention of the oral irrigator.[2] It was acquired by Teledyne Inc in 1967 and was spun off as a public company, Water Pik Technologies, in 1999. It was then bought by the private equity firm Carlyle Group in 2006 in a deal valued at $380 million.[2][3] At this point Water Pik had six major facilities in the US and Canada.[4] Carlyle sold it the following year to EG Capital.[2]
In 2012, Waterpik was reported to have 1,400 employees.[3] In 2013 it was sold to MidOcean Partners and Vulcan Capital.[5] In 2017, MidOcean agreed to sell the company for $1 billion to Church & Dwight. At the time of the sale announcement, it was reported that the company had "$265 million of revenue in the fiscal year ended June 30, about 70% of which came from its water flosser products".[6]
