Company: STAA
Filing Date: 2025-12-19
Form Type: DFAN14A
Source: 0001213900-25-123935
Chunk: 8

Company: STAAR SURGICAL CO
Filing Date: 2025-12-19
Form: DFAN14A
Chunk 8
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 adequate
value for the Company. Specifically:

:

For the past decade, STAAR has been
making significant inroads globally. With increased screen usage’s impact on vision and longer life expectancy, more people are
in need of STAAR’s differentiated products, leading us to believe the future is bright. Obviously, Alcon agrees, pursuing STAAR
at a time when their Chinese business has been weak. Further, STAAR’s board signed the Alcon deal right before second quarter earnings,
which revealed stabilization in the business, representing potential upside for shareholders. We believe that major STAAR shareholder
Broadwood Partners’ December 17 press release pledging to constructively engage with the Board after the vote supports continued
stability of the business and aligns with our conviction in STAAR’s long-term value as an independent entity. Given these factors,
this transaction has been proposed at the wrong time and at the wrong price for STAAR shareholders. In fact, we would argue that it is
extremely opportunistic for Alcon shareholders to the detriment to STAAR shareholders.

:

Glass Lewis recommended shareholders
vote against the deal, while ISS called the process deeply flawed. When deals are announced, event-driven hedge funds will sometimes buy
the stock of the company to be acquired and make a little money when and if the deal closes. An all-cash deal by a major healthcare company
looked attractive, we suppose, and apparently, some of them purchased shares without realizing that STAAR’s largest shareholder
for decades, Broadwood Partners, might not support the deal. When they and the second largest shareholder came out against the deal, the
stock price traded lower, and we received calls from multiple concerned event-driven funds.

When it became clear that the Company
did not have the vote, rather than let the Company’s owners, its shareholders, determine the future of the business and accept defeat,
STAAR delayed the vote until December 19 and reopened the bidding process. Given that 50% of STAAR’s business is in China, a nation
where obtaining good information about business operations is often a lengthy process, did the Board really think that window would be
long enough for a potential acquirer to complete due diligence? Unsurprisingly, no new bids surfaced.

:

We continue to see no compelling reason
to sell STAAR at this time. The future is always uncertain, however what is certain to us is that this process was flawed and the pattern
laid out above leaves us with more questions than answers. We are disappointed