Company: STAA
Filing Date: 2025-09-15
Form Type: PREC14A
Source: 0001213900-25-087448
Chunk: 8

Company: STAAR SURGICAL CO
Filing Date: 2025-09-15
Form: PREC14A
Chunk 8
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, 2025 at 45-46.   |

| 7 | Id. |

| 8 | Id. at 46. |

| 9 | Id. at 41-42. |

| 11 | Id. at 2. |

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Had investors been aware
of these important facts, we believe STAAR’s stock price as an independent company would have traded significantly higher than
where it was when Alcon was negotiating with the Company. In short, Alcon benefited from the fact that STAAR’s stock price did
not, in our view, reflect the Company’s improved business fundamentals and growth prospects. It is worth noting that the management
projections with respect to net sales and Adjusted EBITDA that STAAR’s financial advisor relied upon in issuing its fairness opinion
were meaningfully higher than consensus estimates at the time the Merger was announced,13
indicating, in our view, that the Company’s stock price and market valuation did not reflect the Company’s improving fundamentals
while the Merger was being negotiated.

Second, STAAR may be on the
cusp of market-moving news and a significant value-creation event. An independent, randomized clinical trial comparing the outcomes of
Alcon’s LASIK platform and STAAR’s EVO Implantable Collamer® Lens (“ICL”)14
recently has been completed, and we expect the results to be published soon. We believe this study may have profound implications for
the competitive positioning of the EVO ICL relative to LASIK and, therefore, for the long-term growth prospects of STAAR. It is unsurprising
to us that an acquirer like Alcon might want to act quickly to buy STAAR before the results of the study are released, with the potential
of meaningfully enhancing the Company’s earnings potential and intrinsic value.

Alcon chose to approach the
Company ahead of both of these developments. And in our view, the timing of Alcon’s approach was not coincidental. In our view,
the Company would have been better situated to negotiate a transaction after the news of these critical developments was priced into the
stock. The Board should have waited for that to occur.

An Inadequate Price

What we believe to be a flawed
transaction process and poor timing could perhaps be excused had the Board nevertheless negotiated a transaction that maximized value
for stockholders. Unfortunately, the purchase price significantly undervalues STAAR, in our view. For