In July, the digital health pioneer delayed its annual shareholders meeting to Sept. 19, so it had time to sue Politan in federal court in California over accusations of material misstatements in communications to shareholders. The judge eventually ruled that the vote could proceed.
Politan is seeking Kiani’s ouster more than a year after it won a heated fight for two seats.
Kiani’s board seat is on the line in the shareholders’ vote. Company management is also running Christopher Chavez — a 30-year medtech veteran who previously held CEO roles at Trivascular and Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc. (ANSI) — for an independent director slot. Politan is meanwhile running former Stryker CFO Bill Jellison and former Agilent Technologies SVP and Chief Technology Officer Darlene Solomon for the spots.
Under pressure from Politan, the maker of pulse oximeters, wearable health trackers, and other health monitoring devices has been looking at options to split off its consumer business, undoing a two-year-old $1 billion acquisition of Sound United and its high-end audio and home theater systems.
Masimo has more arguments for its side on protectmasimosfuture.com, while Politan is making its case at www.advancemasimo.com.
Quentin Koffey of Politan Capital Management said in a Sept. 16 letter to shareholders that, “we remain focused on the exceptional opportunity at Masimo and the chance this election represents to make clear that shareholders deserve better.”
Kiani has said he plans to leave the company if he’s ousted from the board. Others including COO Bilal Muhsin and hundreds of engineers have said they would leave, too.
In a Sept. 15 news release, Kiani said: “For more than 35 years, the team at Masimo has poured our heart and soul into driving innovations for patients and value for stockholders. We have internalized our stockholders’ feedback, and we are changing – some of those changes have already been implemented, and others are just around the corner, including the separation of our consumer business and expansion of our Board. This builds on the continued momentum we are driving across Masimo, as demonstrated by our strong second quarter results and recently announced strategic partnerships with companies such as Google and Qualcomm.”
