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Subjects: Photo/Multimedia, Letter, Proxy/Proxy Vote

Politan Details Why a Truly Independent Board is Urgently Needed at Masimo in Order to Protect Shareholder Value and Realize the Company's Full Potential


Politan Capital Management (together with its affiliates, "Politan"), an 8.9% shareholder of Masimo Corporation ("Masimo" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: MASI), today sent a letter to the Company's shareholders outlining why a majority of truly independent directors are urgently needed in the Masimo boardroom. Politan also released a detailed investor presentation making the case for change and why independent nominees ? Darlene Solomon, former Chief Technology Officer of Agilent, and Bill Jellison, former Chief Financial Officer of Stryker ? would bring critically needed expertise to Masimo's Board of Directors. The full presentation can be found here. Additional information can be found on www.AdvanceMasimo.com.

The full text of the letter is below:

Dear Fellow Masimo Shareholders,

Politan owns 9% of Masimo ? an approximately $600 million investment that makes us one of the Company's largest shareholders. We invested in Masimo over two years ago because we believe in the Company's tremendous promise. However, it has become clear that to protect shareholder value, let alone realize Masimo's potential, the Company needs a majority of truly independent directors. This is why we have nominated to the Board Darlene Solomon, former Chief Technology Officer of Agilent, and Bill Jellison, former Chief Financial Officer of Stryker ? two unquestionably independent nominees who bring crucial expertise needed in Masimo's boardroom.

We have made numerous efforts to avoid another proxy contest. Each of our settlement proposals has offered Mr. Kiani the opportunity to remain on the Board. Our offers still stand. Masimo has proposed to seat both Dr. Solomon and Mr. Jellison, but only if we agreed to a separation transaction on the terms that Mr. Kiani had sought earlier this year: Mr. Kiani's full departure from Masimo in order to serve as Executive Chairman of a newly spun off Consumer Business that would take with it licenses to all of Masimo's IP, Mr. Kiani's pick of employees and trade secrets, the Masimo trademark, the corporate headquarters and jet, $150 million in cash and for Mr. Kiani personally the immediate payout of ~$400 million, an entirely new compensation package for his new role and control of the Consumer company either through controlling shares granted to him essentially for free or his personal selection of the Board. We rejected this proposal when it was first made, yet every subsequent Masimo settlement offer has been structured to ensure Mr. Kiani can achieve similar results. Protecting shareholders from the permanent impairment that would result from such transfers of Masimo assets is one of the reasons why shareholders voted Michelle Brennan and me on to Masimo's Board last year, and the fact that Masimo's other directors would condone these types of transfers underscores why further change is needed in the boardroom.

As a result, the only option left open to us is to bring our concerns directly to shareholders. Last year, shareholders overwhelmingly elected us to Masimo's Board. Yet, Mr. Kiani and his selected directors ignored the vote results and refused to repair Board oversight. Instead, they embarked on a damaging entrenchment strategy, including the currently proposed separation ? a transaction that is not the divestment of Sound United that shareholders want, but instead is a transfer of valuable IP, trade secrets and trademarks to an entity Mr. Kiani will lead. Unfortunately, ignoring shareholder votes and employing extraordinary entrenchment mechanisms is not a new pattern of behavior at Masimo, but rather is one that we believe has continually recurred and worsened over the past decade. The vote this year is likely the last chance shareholders will have to break this cycle and enact meaningful change.

Fundamentally, what this upcoming vote is about is simple: fixing the prolonged and deliberate refusal by Masimo to permit independent oversight. However, in light of the Board's unprecedented actions, this vote will also have broader reaching implications in establishing what conduct institutional shareholders will tolerate. Consider the following:

1 Year

3 Year

5 Year

 

 

Masimo Total Shareholder Return
Performance vs.


As of June 21, 2024(1)

 

 

Masimo's Proposed Peers???(2)

(14%)

(36%)

(98%)

Sell-Side Peers?(3)

(30%)

(62%)

(75%)

Broader Medical Device Peers?(4)

(13%)

(32%)

(36%)

Medical Devices Index(5)

(22%)

(43%)

(55%)

Russell 3000 Index?

(45%)

(74%)

(102%)

Governance Remains Broken at Masimo

When shareholders overwhelmingly elected Ms. Brennan and me to the Masimo Board last year, I was optimistic we could work productively with the rest of the Board to drive positive change. Unfortunately, our efforts were continually rebuffed, as the Board refused to give us basic information, denied us access to management, repeatedly held Board meetings excluding us and refused to even consider allowing any review of capital allocation or strategy. Mr. Kiani and his selected directors have been adamant that no governance changes are necessary. As a result, governance remains broken at the Company.

Broken Governance Has Resulted in Significant Harms for Stakeholders

The Board's oversight failures have harmed shareholders, employees and patients. While Masimo's share price, financial performance and operations have declined, its regulatory risks and employee dissatisfaction with the CEO have risen. See Figure 2.

For Over a Decade Shareholders Have Objected, Yet Masimo Refuses to Change and Resorts to Entrenchment

Broken governance harming Masimo is not a new issue. In fact, shareholders have voted against Masimo's Board in extraordinary numbers for well over a decade. Masimo is in a category all of its own, as the Company ranks last or among the bottom couple percent of all US public companies across numerous governance measures and is unique in ranking so poorly across all of them. See Figure 3.

These extraordinarily high votes against Masimo's Board year in and year out have not resulted in improved governance. Rather, Masimo's Board has concocted ever more extreme entrenchment devices to avoid shareholder accountability.

Separation Transaction Poses Significant Risk to Shareholders and Epitomizes Problems Plaguing the Company

Politan, like nearly all Masimo shareholders, would like to see a clean exit from the disastrous Sound United acquisition. However, Mr. Kiani adamantly refuses to do this and continues to insist the acquisition has been the right decision. The announced Separation that Mr. Kiani is pursuing should not be viewed as synonymous with selling Sound United ? instead, it is a transfer of valuable IP licenses, trade secrets and trademarks that could permanently impair Masimo's valuation and create a future competitor while personally benefiting Mr. Kiani.

Politan wants a Separation done right. We have been asking for a strategic review of the Sound United business and consumer healthcare spending for over 18 months. All transaction alternatives should be considered, including a straightforward sale of Sound United. There are complex questions that must be appropriately overseen by independent directors around issues like intellectual property, trademarks, trade secrets, the Apple Litigation, and how such a transaction could trigger provisions of Masimo's licensing agreement with Cercacor. A transaction led by Mr. Kiani without true independent oversight would be irreversible and pose significant risk to Masimo's shareholders in both the near and long term.

Shareholder Nominees Can Safeguard Shareholder Value and Deliver Substantial Share Price Appreciation

We believe that Masimo urgently needs a truly independent Board to safeguard shareholder value and realize the Company's full potential. This is why Politan worked with an independent, nationally recognized executive search firm to identify two directors that have no pre-existing relationship with Politan or Masimo and who bring crucial expertise that is sorely needed on the Board.

***

While the issues outlined in the letter above are significant, the opportunity to deliver returns for shareholders is immense. We have released a 160-page presentation with significant details laying out the tremendous opportunity we see to unlock approximately $10 billion of value by refocusing Masimo as an innovation-led growth company focused on its core hospital and hospital-at-home markets, thereby targeting a reacceleration to 8-10% annual revenue growth and an optimized cost structure that supports investment in successful product launches and delivers 35+% EBIT margins. Importantly, these changes will better position Masimo to improve patient outcomes ? as we cannot further help patients if our new products are not selling. In addition, our 35+% EBIT margin goal contemplates R&D spend that is higher than the long-term levels targeted by Mr. Kiani just last month. For years, Masimo has repeatedly promised new product revenue that never materializes and margin expansion which seems to constantly take two steps back for each one step forward. After the July 25th AGM, Masimo can finally have an experienced, independent Board of successful medical-tech executives that eagerly want to hear from, learn from and empower Masimo's employees. And with that, Masimo can finally deliver for its shareholders and stakeholders.

Electing only one of our two nominees would not be sufficient to effect this type of change. Adding just Dr. Solomon or Mr. Jellison would result in a deadlocked Board ? something broadly criticized by governance experts and which would merely continue the status quo under which Mr. Kiani can do whatever he wants however he wants with no effective Board oversight.

Between now and the shareholder vote, you are likely to hear from Masimo that Politan's "agenda" would irreparably disrupt the Company and cause the exit of Mr. Kiani, which would be an existential threat to Masimo's future. This is false. First and foremost, we have repeatedly made clear that we are willing to work with Mr. Kiani if he can accept truly independent oversight. Further, Mr. Kiani does not run the day-to-day healthcare business, and if he does transition out of the CEO role, we have laid out a detailed plan in our investor presentation that would minimize any disruption. Finally, if Mr. Kiani's departure would be so destructive to Masimo, why was he himself offering his exit to the Special Committee just a few months ago as part of the proposed separation of the Consumer Business? We would also remind shareholders that last year Mr. Kiani promised he would quit the Company if our nominees were elected. This exit obviously did not occur.

You will also likely hear between now and the vote an array of absurd claims attacking anything and everything about Politan ? including our motivations at Masimo. Unfortunately, this is simply how Mr. Kiani does business. We ask you to ignore these distractions and focus on the facts. Most importantly, we ask you to focus on the exceptional opportunity at Masimo and the chance this election represents to not only deliver on this opportunity, but also to make clear that shareholders deserve better than the decade of entrenchment tactics and broken governance that has occurred at Masimo.

Sincerely,

Quentin Koffey

Politan Capital Management


Biographies of Politan's Nominees

Dr. Darlene Solomon is a scientist by training who recently completed a 39-year career at Agilent Technologies, Inc. At Agilent, she served in numerous leadership roles ? including as Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President under three successive CEOs ? and helped define the company's technology strategy and R&D priorities.

As part of Agilent's corporate transformation toward becoming a market-leading life sciences and diagnostics company, Darlene helped oversee three different separations of Agilent, Avago and Keysight. As a result, she brings critical expertise that would inform the appropriate division of Masimo's IP in a separation of its Consumer Business, as well as the understanding of how best to lead and retain technical talent while executing forward-looking business growth.

Darlene is an independent director on the boards of Materion Corporation (NYSE: MTRN), where she is a past member of the Audit and Risk Committee and currently on the Compensation Committee and the Nominating, Governance, and Corporate Responsibility Committee, and of Novanta, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVT), where she is a member of the Compensation Committee. Darlene is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering and serves on multiple academic and government advisory boards focused on science, technology, and innovation. Darlene holds a BS from Stanford University and a Ph.D. from MIT.

William "Bill" Jellison is a veteran medical technology executive and finance expert with decades of relevant experience, including as the former Chief Financial Officer of Stryker Corporation. Bill would bring extensive medical technology and financial oversight expertise. He would also be a natural fit to chair the Masimo Board's Audit Committee, which has not been chaired by a director with any audit committee or even public company board experience in nearly five years. Bill presided over billions of dollars of M&A transactions during his tenure as Chief Financial Officer and would bring significant experience to the evaluation of a separation transaction at Masimo.

While at Stryker, Bill also oversaw all areas of international finance, including accounting, planning and analysis, SEC reporting, acquisition valuations, internal audit, tax and treasury activity. Prior to this, Bill spent 15 years at Dentsply International in a number of leadership positions, including Chief Financial Officer and as a Senior Vice President with full P&L responsibilities for some of Dentsply's operating divisions in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Bill is an independent director on the boards of Avient Corporation (NYSE: AVNT) where he is chair of the Audit Committee and a member of the Environmental, Health and Safety Committee, and of Anika Therapeutics (Nasdaq: ANIK), where he serves on the Capital Allocation Committee. He holds a BA from Hope College in Holland, Michigan.

***

Your vote is important, no matter how many shares of Common Stock you own. We urge you to sign, date, and return the enclosed WHITE universal proxy card today to vote FOR the election of the Politan Nominees and in accordance with the Politan Parties' recommendations on the other proposals on the agenda for the 2024 Annual Meeting.

_________________________
Data and quotes throughout this letter are sourced from Masimo and other companies' filings, presentations and transcripts, third-party data sources including Bloomberg, legal filings and transcripts. Data on shareholder voting is sourced from Institutional Shareholder Services Corporate Solutions. A more detailed description of calculations and company analysis will be available in Politan's upcoming shareholder presentation.

1 Bloomberg data as of June 21, 2024, Friday prior to filing of presentation.
2 As per Masimo Letter to Shareholders on June 17, 2024. Masimo presents itself as a scaled growth company and its peers??? include: ALGN, DXCM, EW, ISRG, PODD, RMD.
3 Sell-Side Peers are peers used for Wolfe Research healthcare segment valuation and include: ABT, BSX, EW, RMD, STE.
4 As per Masimo Letter to Shareholders on June 17, 2024. Broader Medical Device Peers include: ABT, ALGN, BAX, BDX, BSX, CNMD, DXCM, EW, GEHC, GETTIB SS, HAE, IART, ICUI, ISRG, JNJ, LIVN, LMAT, MDT, MMSI, OMCL, PHG, PODD, RMD, SYK, TFX, ZBH.
5 Dow Jones US Medical Equipment Index (selected by Masimo historically in their proxy statement).
6 Per Glassdoor data as of June 21, 2024. Includes 473 reviews.


If you have any questions, require assistance in voting your WHITE universal proxy card or voting instruction form, or need additional copies of Politan's proxy materials, please contact D.F. King using the contact information provided here:

D.F. King & Co., Inc.
48 Wall Street
New York, New York 10005
Stockholders call toll-free: (888) 628-8208
Banks and Brokers call: (212) 269-5550
By Email: [email protected]

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

The information herein contains "forward-looking statements." Specific forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts and include, without limitation, words such as "may," "will," "expects," "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "estimates," "projects," "potential," "targets," "forecasts," "seeks," "could," "should" or the negative of such terms or other variations on such terms or comparable terminology. Similarly, statements that describe our objectives, plans or goals are forward-looking. Forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties and assumptions. There can be no assurance that any idea or assumption herein is, or will be proven, correct. If one or more of the risks or uncertainties materialize, or if any of the underlying assumptions of Politan Capital Management LP ("Politan") or any of the other participants in the proxy solicitation described herein prove to be incorrect, the actual results may vary materially from outcomes indicated by these statements. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a representation by Politan that the future plans, estimates or expectations contemplated will ever be achieved.

Certain statements and information included herein may have been sourced from third parties. Politan does not make any representations regarding the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of such third party statements or information. Except as may be expressly set forth herein, permission to cite such statements or information has neither been sought nor obtained from such third parties. Any such statements or information should not be viewed as an indication of support from such third parties for the views expressed herein.

Politan disclaims any obligation to update the information herein or to disclose the results of any revisions that may be made to any projected results or forward-looking statements herein to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such information, projected results or statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events.

CERTAIN INFORMATION CONCERNING THE PARTICIPANTS

Politan and the other Participants (as defined below) have filed a definitive proxy statement and accompanying WHITE universal proxy card or voting instruction form with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") to be used to solicit proxies for, among other matters, the election of its slate of director nominees at the 2024 annual stockholders meeting (the "2024 Annual Meeting") of Masimo Corporation, a Delaware corporation ("Masimo"). Shortly after filing its definitive proxy statement with the SEC, Politan furnished the definitive proxy statement and accompanying WHITE universal proxy card or voting instruction form to some or all of the stockholders entitled to vote at the 2024 Annual Meeting.

The participants in the proxy solicitation are Politan, Politan Capital Management GP LLC ("Politan Management"), Politan Capital Partners GP LLC ("Politan GP"), Politan Capital NY LLC (the "Record Stockholder"), Politan Intermediate Ltd., Politan Capital Partners Master Fund LP ("Politan Master Fund"), Politan Capital Partners LP ("Politan LP"), Politan Capital Offshore Partners LP ("Politan Offshore" and, collectively with Politan Master Fund and Politan LP, the "Politan Funds"), Quentin Koffey, Matthew Hall, Aaron Kapito (all of the foregoing persons, collectively, the "Politan Parties"), William Jellison and Darlene Solomon (such individuals, collectively with the Politan Parties, the "Participants").

As of the date hereof, the Politan Parties in this solicitation collectively own an aggregate of 4,713,518 shares (the "Politan Group Shares") of common stock, par value $0.001 per share, of Masimo (the "Common Stock"). Mr. Koffey may be deemed to own an aggregate of 4,714,746 shares of Common Stock (the "Koffey Shares"), which consists of 1,228 restricted stock units (the "RSUs") as well as the Politan Group Shares. Politan, as the investment adviser to the Politan Funds, may be deemed to have the shared power to vote or direct the vote of (and the shared power to dispose or direct the disposition of) the Politan Group Shares, and, therefore, Politan may be deemed to be the beneficial owner of all of the Politan Group Shares. The Record Stockholder is the direct and record owner of 1,000 shares of Common Stock that comprise part of the Politan Group Shares. Both the Politan Group Shares and the Koffey Shares represent approximately 8.9% of the outstanding shares of Common Stock based on 53,182,247 shares of Common Stock outstanding as of June 13, 2024, as reported in Masimo's definitive proxy statement filed on June 17, 2024. As the general partner of Politan, Politan Management may be deemed to have the shared power to vote or direct the vote of (and the shared power to dispose or direct the disposition of) all of the Politan Group Shares and, therefore, Politan Management may be deemed to be the beneficial owner of all of the Politan Group Shares. As the general partner of the Politan Funds, Politan GP may be deemed to have the shared power to vote or to direct the vote of (and the shared power to dispose or direct the disposition of) all of the Politan Group Shares, and therefore Politan GP may be deemed to be the beneficial owner of all of the Politan Group Shares. Mr. Koffey, including by virtue of his position as the Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Politan and as the Managing Member of Politan Management and Politan GP, may be deemed to have the shared power to vote or direct the vote of (and the shared power to dispose or direct the disposition of) all of the Koffey Shares.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND WHERE TO FIND IT

POLITAN STRONGLY ADVISES ALL STOCKHOLDERS OF MASIMO TO READ ITS DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT, ANY AMENDMENTS OR SUPPLEMENTS TO SUCH PROXY STATEMENT AND OTHER PROXY MATERIALS FILED BY POLITAN WITH THE SEC AS THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. SUCH PROXY MATERIALS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT NO CHARGE ON THE SEC'S WEBSITE AT WWW.SEC.GOV. THE DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT AND OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS, ARE ALSO AVAILABLE ON THE SEC WEBSITE, FREE OF CHARGE, OR BY DIRECTING A REQUEST TO THE PARTICIPANTS' PROXY SOLICITOR, D.F. KING & CO., INC., 48 WALL STREET, 22ND FLOOR, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10005 STOCKHOLDERS CAN CALL TOLL-FREE: (888) 628-8208.



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