Politan declares victory in Masimo board battle, claiming founder and CEO Joe Kiani’s seat

Politan Capital Management says it has won control of the Masimo (Nasdaq: MASI) + board — including the seat held by founder, CEO and Chair Joe Kiani — following today’s vote by shareholders at the device developer’s annual meeting.

Irvine, California–based Masimo has not yet released an official tally of the votes from yesterday — results of which public companies often file with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the days following their annual meetings.

Politan, led by Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer Quentin Koffey, said Masimo shareholders voted to seat the activist investor’s nominees, citing preliminary analysis by its proxy solicitor.

If that analysis is correct, Politan’s nominees — former Stryker CFO Bill Jellison and former Agilent Technologies SVP and Chief Technology Officer Darlene Solomon — will join Koffey and former Johnson & Johnson MedTech executive Michelle Brennan on Masimo’s six-person board.

Masimo shareholders voted Koffey and Brennan onto the board last year. Politan controls about 9% of Masimo’s stock.

“While each of us is independent and brings our own unique perspectives, we are united in our enthusiasm for Masimo’s future as a leading, innovation-focused growth company,” Koffey, Brennan, Solomon and Jellison said in a joint statement. “We look forward to meeting with, learning from, and working together with the Healthcare and Consumer employees to make Masimo an even greater company. We would also like customers to know that we will be completely focused on preventing any disruption to their service and support. We will have more to share soon.”

Yesterday, a Masimo representative pointed MassDevice toward the company’s proxy fight website for updates.

Kiani has said he plans to leave the company if he’s ousted from the board. “Everything is at stake,” the company said in its most recent post ahead of the vote.

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.

The next morning after the vote, BTIG analysts Marie Thibault and Sam Eiber kept their Buy rating on MASI shares, saying that they thought Politan’s focus on separating the consumer business and improving profit margins was in line with their thesis about the company’s stock. “Over the coming months, we think a resolution on the corporate governance issues that led to this proxy vote and calmer seas could allow some investors to take another look at the MASI story.”

MASI shares were up more than 3% to $115.09 apiece in morning trading.

This story originally ran on the evening of Sept. 19, 2024. Updated Sept. 20 with additional updates.