Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI), a global leader in non-invasive monitoring technologies and audio consumer products, announced late Friday that its Board of Directors has authorized management to evaluate a proposed separation of its consumer business. The consumer business includes audio brands such as Marantz, Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Classe and Polk Audio that Masimo acquired in 2022 with the purchase of Sound United.
With the announcement of Masimo’s purchase of Sound United, most on Wall Street couldn’t understand the synergy of a collection of highly respected audio brands integrating with Masimo’s massively profitable and core healthcare business. Masimo’s share price fell close to 40% when the company disclosed the Sound United Acquisition.
With Masimo’s shares in a freefall, activist investor Politan Capital Management disclose a 9% ownership stake in Masimo a few months after the Sound United acquisition and then sued the company for what Politan saw as mismanagement of Masimo. Politan succeeded in securing two seats on the Masimo Board and really, anyone who has been following this story will not find Friday’s announcement that the audio brands will be separated from the core company, a surprise.
What is not clear is whether this is the first stage of an ultimate sale of the audio brands by Masimo, either as a group or individually, or if this is more like Google becoming Alphabet, with Google now a division inside the parent company. Whether Masimo keeps the audio division as a standalone company or ultimately sells the brands, Wall Street as responded favourably to the decision of the consumer audio division no longer part of the publicly traded Masimo Corporation. Shares of Masimo are up 9% in after hours trading. Below is the release provided by Masimo:
The Board and management will evaluate the proposed structure of the separation. Masimo expects that the separation will include its consumer audio and consumer health products, including the Stork baby monitor and the Freedom smart watch and band. Masimo will retain its professional healthcare and telehealth products. Masimo expects that this will improve the profitability of the healthcare business.
Joe Kiani is expected to remain Chairman and CEO of Masimo and to be named Chairman of the newly created company. Masimo will seek to complete the separation as soon as feasible, subject to completion of due diligence, completion of definitive agreements, submission and clearance of filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the receipt of other applicable regulatory approvals.
“I truly believe there is tremendous opportunity to increase not just the lifespan but the healthspan of people by taking healthcare into the home,” said Mr. Kiani. “We have unique and necessary technologies to make what I’ve been calling 22nd Century healthcare happen in the next few years. I proposed a separation of the consumer business in January and the Board has agreed to move forward. This approach is expected to maximize shareholder value as well as give both Masimo healthcare and the new consumer business the best path for success.”
Masimo is also reaffirming its financial guidance for the first quarter and fiscal year 2024.
About Masimo
Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI) is a global medical technology company that develops and produces a wide array of industry-leading monitoring technologies, including innovative measurements, sensors, patient monitors, and automation and connectivity solutions. In addition, Masimo Consumer Audio is home to eight legendary audio brands, including Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Marantz, and Polk Audio. Our mission is to improve life, improve patient outcomes, and reduce the cost of care. Masimo SET® Measure-through Motion and Low Perfusion™ pulse oximetry, introduced in 1995, has been shown in over 100 independent and objective studies to outperform other pulse oximetry technologies.3 Masimo SET® has also been shown to help clinicians reduce severe retinopathy of prematurity in neonates,4 improve CCHD screening in newborns,5 and, when used for continuous monitoring with Masimo Patient SafetyNet™ in post-surgical wards, reduce rapid response team activations, ICU transfers, and costs.6-9 Masimo SET® is estimated to be used on more than 200 million patients in leading hospitals and other healthcare settings around the world,1 and is the primary pulse oximetry at 9 of the top 10 hospitals as ranked in the 2022-23 U.S. News and World Report Best Hospitals Honor Roll.2 In 2005, Masimo introduced rainbow® Pulse CO-Oximetry technology, allowing noninvasive and continuous monitoring of blood constituents that previously could only be measured invasively, including total hemoglobin (SpHb®), oxygen content (SpOC™), carboxyhemoglobin (SpCO®), methemoglobin (SpMet®), Pleth Variability Index (PVi®), RPVi™ (rainbow® PVi), and Oxygen Reserve Index (ORi™). In 2013, Masimo introduced the Root® Patient Monitoring and Connectivity Platform, built from the ground up to be as flexible and expandable as possible to facilitate the addition of other Masimo and third-party monitoring technologies; key Masimo additions include Next Generation SedLine® Brain Function Monitoring, O3® Regional Oximetry, and ISA™Capnography with NomoLine® sampling lines. Masimo’s family of continuous and spot-check monitoring Pulse CO-Oximeters® includes devices designed for use in a variety of clinical and non-clinical scenarios, including tetherless, wearable technology, such as Radius-7®, Radius PPG®, and Radius VSM™, portable devices like Rad-67®, fingertip pulse oximeters like MightySat® Rx, and devices available for use both in the hospital and at home, such as Rad-97® and the Masimo W1® medical watch. Masimo hospital and home automation and connectivity solutions are centered around the Masimo Hospital Automation™ platform, and include Iris® Gateway, iSirona™, Patient SafetyNet, Replica®, Halo ION®, UniView®, UniView :60™, and Masimo SafetyNet®. Its growing portfolio of health and wellness solutions includes Radius T°® and Masimo W1 Sport. Additional information about Masimo and its products may be found at