Company: STAA
Filing Date: 2025-09-26
Form Type: DEFA14A
Source: 0001193125-25-219844
Chunk: 36

Company: STAAR SURGICAL CO
Filing Date: 2025-09-26
Form: DEFA14A
Chunk 36
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 Light of Intensifying Competition and Increased Business Risks

All STAAR Stockholders Encouraged to Vote “FOR” Alcon Merger on the WHITE Proxy Card

LAKE FOREST, CA, September26, 2025 — STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ: STAA), the global leader in phakic IOLs with the EVO family of Implantable Collamer Lenses (EVO
ICL) for vision correction, today published a presentation reviewing the compelling, certain, premium cash value offered by the Company’s pending merger with Alcon (SIX/NYSE: ALC) and
the meaningful downside risks for STAAR stockholders if the Alcon merger is not approved. The presentation is available at investors.staar.com and has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

STAAR also announced that the Company’s second largest active stockholder, Soleus Capital Master Fund, L.P. (“Soleus Capital”), has informed the Board that it is supportive of the merger and intends to vote in favor absent a material change in circumstances. As of the record date, Soleus Capital owned approximately 6% of STAAR’s outstanding shares.

On behalf of the STAAR Board of Directors, Stephen Farrell, CEO of STAAR, said:

“We have talked with many STAAR stockholders and analysts over the past weeks who are supportive of the Alcon merger and recognize the
compelling value it provides, which is why we are confident that the majority of our stockholders will vote “FOR” the Alcon merger. We thank our stockholders for their support.

“Entry into the Alcon merger agreement followed more than a year of consideration by STAAR’s Board of strategic alternatives available to STAAR. Indeed, the Board met over 20 times to discuss related matters in the first eight months of 2025 alone. After considering STAAR’s prospects and risks as a standalone company, the Board unanimously believes the Alcon merger is the best path forward for stockholders. “Broadwood has a fundamentally different view of the Company’s growth trajectory that is based on assumptions that are not just aggressive, they are unachievable. Broadwood has been an investor in STAAR for 30 years and has a dramatically different investment time horizon than most other investors. Broadwood ignores that STAAR’s Net Sales have been decreasing since 2023. Management is working hard and expects to be successful in reversing the multi-year trend of declining Net Sales, yet we expect our future long-term growth