Activist Politan seeks more seats on Masimo's board to boost presence

(Reuters) -Politan Capital Management has nominated two directors to the board of Masimo Corp, the activist shareholder said on Monday, marking the possible start of a second proxy battle after winning two seats last year at the medical device firm.

Shares of the company, which said on Friday it was evaluating a spinoff of its consumer business, were up 13% in early trading.

Politan, which owns a nearly 9% stake in Masimo, has nominated William Jellison, former CFO of Stryker, and Darlene Solomon, former CTO of Agilent Technologies, as its candidates to the company's six-member board.

Quentin Koffey-owned Politan has long criticized Masimo's capital allocation and board oversight and expressed particular concern about last year's $1 billion purchase of consumer audio products maker Sound United.

Politan said it supported the separation, but was seeking two more board seats for more oversight over the process.

"Members of the Board, including Quentin Koffey, have been a key part of the discussions concerning the separation dating back to January," the company said in a statement to Reuters.

The consumer business includes Masimo's consumer health and audio products.

Masimo has been fighting a legal battle with Apple over a patent dispute on the blood oxygen sensors in newer Apple Watch models, forcing the iPhone maker to sell the devices without the feature.

"When shareholders overwhelmingly elected Michelle Brennan and me to the Masimo Board last year, we were optimistic we could work productively with the rest of the Board," Koffey said in a statement on Monday.

"Unfortunately, our efforts were continually rebuffed, as Chairman & CEO Joe Kiani refused to give us basic information," he said.

(Reporting by Christy Santhosh and Chandni Shah in Bengaluru and additional reporting by Angela Christy, Greg Roumeliotis; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Sriraj Kalluvi;a)