Joe Kiani can now call himself the former CEO of the embattled Masimo, as he has stepped down, reportedly not due to the Apple controversy.
Former CEO Joe Kiani of Masimo has resigned, as reported for example here. He became well-known to the general public for his patent-trolling behavior towards Apple, related to an oxygen saturation sensor in the Apple Watch. This led Apple to disable the feature in the latest version of WatchOS via software. However, this happened after Masimo had poured over a hundred million dollars into what seemed to be a personal vendetta.
Sound United
In all likelihood that Apple can now more easily strike a deal with Masimo is quite high. The company, originally a producer of professional medical equipment, likely cannot afford to continue costly and protracted legal battles. The unexpected AV venture they embarked on, following its acquisition of Sound United for 1 billion euros, hasn’t been performing as well as hoped. Many experts raised eyebrows at this purchase, given that the brands under the Sound United umbrella weren’t exactly thriving. Eventually, Kiani was pushed out by the hedge fund Politan, although officially not due to his personal feud with Apple. It’s likely that this saga is far from over.