Broadwood Partners Working to Call Special Meeting of STAAR Surgical Shareholders to Remove Three Directors

Broadwood Partners, L.P. and its affiliates (collectively, “Broadwood”) today announced that it is well along in the multi-step and time-consuming process that is required to call a Special Meeting of Shareholders (the “Special Meeting”) at STAAR Surgical Company (“STAAR” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: STAA) to remove three directors from the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Board”). Broadwood, which owns 30.2% of STAAR’s outstanding common stock, continues to oppose the current agreement to sell the Company to Alcon Inc. (“Alcon”) (NYSE: ALC), and believes changes to STAAR’s Board are needed to restore investor confidence in the Board’s decision making and the sale process.

At the Special Meeting, Broadwood intends to seek the removal of the three incumbent directors it believes are most responsible for incentivizing, facilitating, and promoting the sale of the Company to Alcon at the wrong time, after a flawed process, and at an inadequate price:

• Elizabeth Yeu, STAAR’s Board Chair, whose close and longstanding relationship with Alcon — which does not appear to have been disclosed to the full Board or to shareholders in a timely manner — may have caused her to ignore inbound interest from another prospective acquirer and, in so doing, irredeemably compromised the sale process;
• Stephen Farrell, STAAR’s CEO, who, having served for only a few months, stands to receive $24 million if the proposed transaction closes, and therefore, in our view, has a powerful incentive to mislead shareholders about STAAR’s business and prospects to justify a sale of the Company and preserve his outsized payout (and who, like Yeu, failed to inform the full Board and shareholders of interest from another prospective acquirer); and
• Arthur Butcher, Chair of the Board’s Compensation Committee, who, in our view, bears primary responsibility for the egregious “golden parachute” compensation to STAAR’s executives that is nearly twice as high, relative to the implied equity value, as the average amount paid in other M&A transactions in 2025—despite the fact that the average tenure of the STAAR executives is less than two years.

Neal C. Bradsher, Founder and President of Broadwood, said: