Company: STAA
Filing Date: 2025-09-24
Form Type: DFAN14A
Source: 0001213900-25-091197
Chunk: 4

Company: STAAR SURGICAL CO
Filing Date: 2025-09-24
Form: DFAN14A
Chunk 4
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 a concrete proposal

There is simply no way to know how many other
parties might have been interested, nor what these alternative potential bidders (and others) might have proposed, if only the Board had
bothered to engage properly. The hurried and limited “window shop” period is no substitute for a well-run strategic alternatives
process — even though it may provide the Board the fig leaf of fiduciary duty protection under the law. It is simply a fact that
very few alternative proposals have ever been made during “window shop” periods in the history of M&A practice. By our
count, just 10 such proposals in the last 25 years have succeeded. The truth is, even interested parties are deterred from attempting
to break up signed transactions due to the procedural and legal hurdles they would have to overcome, a feat made all the more challenging
when the signed deal is seemingly with a board’s preferred merger partner.

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In short, we do not believe that the Board’s
“process” — negotiating with just one party while effectively ignoring interest from others — was designed or
was likely to produce the best available offer, and the highest price, for the Company. We are confident that a properly conducted process,
one that canvassed the full universe of potential buyers, would have uncovered interest from others, stoked competitive tension, and resulted
in a price that reflects STAAR’s intrinsic value.

The competitive tension alone created by a fulsome
process might have led to a better deal. After all, less than a year ago, Alcon itself proposed to buy STAAR for $62 per share. STAAR’s
business outlook today is stronger than it was then, even if the stock was trading lower prior to the announcement of the Proposed
Merger. Notably, the stock was trading lower without knowledge of the second-quarter business results and management’s projections
for strong revenue growth and profitability, which were disclosed only after the announcement of the Proposed Merger; those results and
projections showed an abatement of the inventory challenges the Company had faced in 2024 and early 2025 and a significant reduction in
expenses.

A Conflicted Board and Management Team

We are concerned that the otherwise inexplicable
decision to sell the Company at an obviously inopportune time, after a limited and questionable process and at an inadequate price, was
influenced by the Board’s numerous business entanglements with Alcon and management’s personal financial