Dive Brief:
- Masimo is laying off 75 employees in Irvine, California, effective Jan. 13, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed in November. Most of the employees work in the company’s headquarters office.
- The job cuts follow the departure of CEO and founder Joe Kiani, who resigned from the patient monitoring company in September after losing a two-year proxy battle with activist investor Politan Capital Management. Last month, Masimo executives said the company was working to reduce costs and reprioritize its spending.
- “We are allocating resources to fewer projects, concentrating on sizable market opportunities that address clear unmet needs, and ensuring we can continue to invest heavily in innovation,” a Masimo spokesperson said Tuesday in an email to MedTech Dive.
Dive Insight:
Masimo, led by interim CEO Michelle Brennan, is moving quickly to refocus priorities for long-term growth.
“Unfortunately, this has also meant shifting and reducing headcount in certain areas to better position the company to meet our goals and be able to bring lasting benefits to the patients we serve," the spokesperson wrote.
The workforce reduction in Irvine includes a large number of engineers as well as managers and designers. The layoffs are expected to take place by Jan. 13.
Most of the people affected are based at the company headquarters at 52 Discovery, with three other locations also losing employees.
“All of the facilities will remain in operation following this notice, except that the remaining employees in [the 58 Discovery site] are anticipated to be transferred to other facilities in Irvine in the near future,” the company’s letter to the state said.
During the proxy contest, Politan said it would prioritize Masimo’s core healthcare and hospital-to-home markets, divest the consumer audio business and pursue cost reductions to improve margins.
Masimo executives, on an earnings call last month, said the company was still evaluating strategic alternatives for its consumer operations. The acquisition of the Sound United consumer audio business for $1 billion in 2022 was a focal point in the proxy battle.
If Masimo decides against spinning off the consumer business into a publicly traded company, it expects to treat it as a discontinued operation.
The company also said its search for a permanent CEO was continuing.
