Company: STAA
Filing Date: 2025-09-26
Form Type: DFAN14A
Source: 0001213900-25-092390
Chunk: 2

Company: STAAR SURGICAL CO
Filing Date: 2025-09-26
Form: DFAN14A
Chunk 2
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 relationship with STAAR runs deep.

As CEO, he recruited Aeschlimann, dispatched him to Singapore
to grow the regional business, and navigated a pivotal joint-venture acquisition in Japan, financed in part by Broadwood Capital. Neal
Bradsher of Broadwood remains a key stakeholder in this evolving deal.

“I’ve known Neal for years,” Bailey told
CTFN. “When I saw what was going on at STAAR earlier this
year, I reached out. The financial ratios were far from best practice. The P&L showed mismanagement. But the fundamentals were intact.”

While he engaged in multiple calls with Bradsher, the prospect
of the company accepting a sharply reduced bid materialized.

Bailey explained that he also emailed STAAR CEO Stephen
Farrell, saying it was a good deal in the sense that Alcon’s involvement would help ensure the target’s technology
reached the maximum number of patients worldwide. However, Bailey added, Farrell appeared to have taken that to mean Bailey agreed
with the deal price, which he did not.

Bailey said he then wrote back in August to clarify that
his comment did not imply agreement with the price, and he made it clear he thought the offer price was too low.

“I believe the ICL [implantable collamer lenses] technology
needs to eventually reside with a strategic like Alcon in order to reach its full global potential, but to sell at this moment in time
at this price significantly undervalues the technology,” Bailey wrote in an email to STAAR.

“The progress you have already made by simply cutting
‘low hanging fruit’ on the expense side only underscores the potential amount of value being left on the table. Execution
of a more radical global restructuring plan should be the priority, not an early sale at a knock-down price.The fact is with this decision,
Alcon is getting an incredibly valuable asset at a knock-down price,” he told the company.

“I am a shareholder, yes, but not a large one,”
Bailey emphasized on a phone call with CTFN. “This is not
about my stake. It was about experience. I know this technology, this space, and I saw opportunity being left on the table.”

China ‘blip’ and loss of leverage

The current narrative holds
that STAAR’s precipitous revenue drop was due to structural weakness.

Bailey disagreed, arguing the decline came from a temporary
disruption in China, where the volume of elective procedures fell due to lower consumer