Masimo founder Joe Kiani was once described by Apple officials as the Steve Jobs of medtech, before the two companies became embroiled in smartwatch-related trade secret litigation.
But the business icon (who holds more than 600 patents) might now best be compared to the late Arnold Beckman, the founder of what is now Beckman Coulter, and who is considered one of the top five inventors of scientific instruments, with 14 patents to his name.
Brea’s Beckman Coulter was acquired by Danaher Corp. in 2011 for nearly $7 billion, while Irvine’s Masimo is in line to be bought by the same Washington, D.C.-based conglomerate for close to $10 billion.
Both Masimo and Beckman will fall under Danaher’s diagnostics division, whose EVP is Brea-based Julie Sawyer Montgomery.
See Yuika Yoshida’s front-page story for more on the sale of OC’s 8th most valuable public company.
Kiani, who departed Masimo in 2024, holds stock worth up to $1 billion as a result of the sale, according to regulatory filings.
“I am happy to see Masimo in Danaher’s hands, which is founder-run, and does things for the long term,” Kiani told the Business Journal.
Kiani, who now runs Irvine’s Willow Laboratories and is involved in several other medtech and media ventures, will be in the headlines this week as the Patient Safety Movement, a foundation he started in 2012 to prevent deaths from medical errors, holds its annual conference in Dana Point.
The event’s keynote speaker is former First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.
Prior keynote speakers have included former president Bill Clinton; the Biden family are frequent guests at Kiani’s ranch in Santa Ynez.
Oakley founder Jim Jannard is getting some free, albeit unwanted, publicity for his on-the-market Beverly Hills home, a fortress-like “villain’s lair” that shares some architectural similarities with the sunglass maker’s steampunk-themed Foothill Ranch HQ.
The concrete-heavy Brutalist home, currently listed for sale at just under $60 million, was set to hold a Feb. 14 event during the NBA All-Star weekend, hosted by the Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown.
However, the event was shut down by local police, who said the gathering lacked a permit.
Brown, who was named a brand partner for Oakley a year ago, disputed the characterization. “We didn’t need a permit because the owner of the house, that was his space,” Brown said via social media.
“We were family friends, he opened up his festivities to us,” according to Brown, who said Jannard—who sold Oakley to Luxottica for $2.1 billion in 2007, and launched another OC-based sunglass company, M-Experiment, a few years ago—was considering a lawsuit against Beverly Hills.
Jannard’s no stranger to luxe home sales in Los Angeles. In 2024, he sold an oceanfront mansion in Malibu for a reported $210 million, a record price for a home in California. He paid $75 million for the home in 2012.
Jannard in 2009 paid a reported $19.9 million for the 2-acre lot that holds the Beverly Hills home.
