Founder and CEO of Masimo, Joe Kiani addresses a press conference in Bangalore on January 2, 2017.
Manjunath Kiran | Afp | Getty Images
Billionaire Masimo founder Joe Kiani, best known for his successful legal fight against Apple and his friendship with President Joe Biden, has borrowed against half of his $660 million stake in the health-technology company rather than sell his stock, according to corporate filings from earlier this week.
Borrowing against that much of a stake is unusual for executives, but may be helpful as the company prepares for a fight with an activist aiming to take control of the board. The move allows Kiani, the company’s CEO and chairman, to maintain his stake and voting power while also getting money he says he needs for family reasons.
Many medical-tech peers bar such moves, and it could leave Kiani susceptible to margin calls if Masimo’s stock falls below a certain threshold. Kiani has just under 4 million Masimo shares, or around 7.5% of the company, according to FactSet data.
Masimo, which makes wearables and health monitoring products, is preparing to fend off a second proxy fight waged by Quentin Koffey’s Politan Capital Management. Kiani described Koffey as “destructive” in a March CNBC interview.
Masimo shares are up 15% this year, lifting the company’s market cap past $7 billion. The stock had a volatile run in the back half of 2023, falling 47% in the third quarter before gaining 34% in the fourth.
Politan controls 8.9% of Masimo shares. While that’s bigger than Kiani’s stake, even before pledged shares are weighed, regulatory filings show that the CEO has options that could boost his holdings to 9.2% if exercised.
Politan already won two seats on Masimo’s six-person board in a contentious 2023 proxy fight, but announced last month that it would seek two more seats, including Kiani’s, to cement control.
Kiani, 59, pledged 2.97 million Masimo shares as of April, valued at $397 million, as collateral against “personal loans.” The company said in its annual filing Kiani had family “financial planning objectives” that would require him to sell his stock, but that he “did not want to diminish his shareholdings.” His objectives weren’t spelled out in the filings.
“The pledge of shares was pre-approved by the Board and reflects Mr. Kiani’s conviction in the value of Masimo stock despite the short-term decline in the stock price during the second half of 2023,” a Masimo spokesman said in an emailed statement. “Rather than sell his pledged shares, Mr. Kiani increased his pledge to maintain his stock ownership.”
The spokesperson added that Kiani purchased about $7 million worth of Masimo stock in the second half of 2022 and the first half of 2023.
The Masimo logo is displayed at Masimo headquarters on December 27, 2023 in Irvine, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
Kiani is a major Democratic donor who is reportedly close with President Biden. He also has an 8,000-acre winery in Santa Ynez, California, near Santa Barbara. The lending is an increase from the year before, when Kiani only pledged 400,000 shares as collateral.
Masimo’s board also includes Bob Chapek, who joined in January, almost exactly a year after was he ousted as Disney’s CEO.
Several of Masimo’s peers, like Agilent, Stryker and Medtronic, don’t allow executives to pledge their shares. Companies generally frown upon stock pledging, though some, including Masimo, permit it with board approval. Stock-backed lending, or “Lombard loans,” generally requires a borrower to sell their shares if they fall below a certain value, which in the case of large shareholders can drive a stock price down even further.
Masimo’s earlier proxy fight was marked by litigation between the two sides that led to Politan winning $18 million in legal fees after forcing the company to abandon an effort to thwart the investment firm. There were also personal attacks. In regulatory filings, the company described Koffey as someone with “hubris” that was “no different than his more prominent peer Bill Ackman.”
Major shareholders, including Vanguard, sided with the activist, which said that Masimo had been marred by poor governance practices and the acquisition of Sound United, a consumer audio company. Masimo shares plummeted 37% the day the deal was announced in February 2022.
Last month, Masimo said it would spin off its consumer business, an announcement that boosted the stock. When Politan announced its second campaign days later, shares rose even higher. Politan has said news of the spinoff, made after the bell on a Friday and shortly before the activist announced its second campaign, was “rushed” when the company learned of the activist’s plans.
Masimo has denied that claim. The company has yet to file a proxy statement or schedule an annual meeting.
Masimo has had some success in recent months. The company pursued high-profile patent litigation against Apple, alleging that the company infringed on its pulse oximeter technology for the Apple Watch. After some initial setbacks, Masimo won a ruling that restricted the sale of some watches. The two companies remain in negotiations on the matter.
Anthony Noto, CEO of SoFi, speaking with CNBC at the annual Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho on July 10th, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
SoFi shares fell almost 6% in extended trading Thursday after the fintech company announced a $1.5 billion stock offering.
The company, which provides online loans and other banking services, said in a press release that it will use the proceeds for “general corporate purposes, including but not limited to enhancing capital position, increasing optionality and enabling further efficiency of capital management, and funding incremental growth and business opportunities.”
The announced offering comes after SoFi’s market cap almost doubled so far in 2025. The stock price is up more than sixfold since the end of 2022.
A company’s share price often drops on a planned share sale as the offering dilutes the value of existing holders’ stakes.
In its third-quarter earnings release in late October, SoFi reported revenue growth of 38% from a year earlier to $961.6 million, while net income more than doubled to $139.4 million. The company reported cash and equivalents of $3.25 billion.
Lisa Jackson, senior vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives at Apple Inc., speaks during the TechCrunch Disrupt 2017 in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Apple’s general counsel, Kate Adams, and its vice president for environment, policy, and social initiatives, Lisa Jackson, are retiring from the company, the iPhone maker announced on Thursday.
Jennifer Newstead, Meta’s chief legal officer, will become Apple’s new general counsel in March, and Jackson’s government affairs staff will report to her starting late next year, Apple said.
The two executives, who both reported to Apple CEO Tim Cook, are the latest members of senior leadership to exit the company. In recent weeks, Apple’s head software designer said he was leaving to join Meta, while Apple said its AI chief was retiring, along with its chief operating officer.
Adams joined Apple from Honeywell and became general counsel in 2017, and oversaw legal matters including litigation, global security, and the company’s privacy initiatives. Under Adams, Apple grappled with rising antitrust scrutiny and regulation around the world, including major lawsuits in the U.S. over the iPhone App Store’s restrictions and fees.
Jackson joined Apple in 2013, and led the company’s diversity programs as well as much of its policy work in Washington, D.C. Before that, she spent four years as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a position she was appointed to by President Barack Obama.
With her emphasis in areas like social justice and renewable energies, Jackson’s job lost relevance during the second Trump administration, which has publicly denounced diversity, equity and inclusion programs and slammed efforts to combat climate change.
Apple has faced increased tariffs from the Trump administration, and Cook has met with President Donald Trump several times to tout the company’s American manufacturing plans as part of an effort to influence policy.
Jackson was instrumental in Apple’s launch of its Racial Equity and Justice Initiative following the 2020 murder of George Floyd. She then helped expand the company’s equity and justice efforts to other countries, including the U.K., Mexico and New Zealand, according to a report published in 2023.
“At Apple, we pledge that our resolve will not fade,” Jackson wrote in a section of that report. “We won’t delay action. We will work, each and every day, on the urgent task of advancing equity.”
Jackson also worked on Apple’s environmental image. Her job “focused on reducing greenhouse gases, protecting air and water quality, preventing exposure to toxic contamination, and expanding outreach to communities on environmental issues,” according to her bio on the company’s website. She discussed Apple’s plans to become carbon neutral at iPhone launch events.
Jackson also accompanied Cook to several official functions in Washington, including state dinners.
Apple CEO Tim Cook and Apple Vice President Lisa Jackson arrive at the White House for a state dinner on April 10, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Tasos Katopodis | Getty Images
Newstead, who will become Apple’s top lawyer, has overseen Meta’s legal and regulatory matters pertaining to its family of apps like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp since 2019. A Meta spokesperson said Newstead will be staying through the end of the year and that the company is actively searching for her replacement.
Prior to Meta, Newstead served as a Trump-appointed legal advisor at the State Department during the president’s first administration in 2019.
Before that, she was a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell and a general counsel of the White House Office of Management and Budget, among other roles in the U.S. government.
A general view of the Microsoft office building is seen in Cologne, Germany, on November 18, 2025.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Microsoft said Thursday that it will increase the prices of Office productivity software subscriptions for commercial and government clients on July 1.
The company’s Office applications, which include Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, have been facing increased competition in recent years from Google.
“We are continuously investing and innovating our platform for the future,” Nicole Herskowitz, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365 and Copilot, wrote in a blog post. “In the last year, we released more than 1,100 features across Microsoft 365, Security, Copilot, and SharePoint.” The new features have added value to the suites, she wrote.
Price hikes for commercial Office subscriptions have been infrequent. In 2022, Microsoft raised prices of its productivity bundles for the first time since launching the original Office 365 subscriptions in 2011. Microsoft changed the name of Office 365 to Microsoft 365 in 2020. In January, Microsoft announced a price hike for consumer Office bundles.
Microsoft offers Office 365 subscriptions for commercial use that include access to its productivity applications, along with higher-priced Microsoft 365 subscriptions that also include Windows operating system updates.
Here’s a breakdown of the commercial price changes:
For small and medium-sized businesses, Microsoft 365 Business Basic will cost $7 per person per month, up from $6.
Microsoft 365 Business Standard will be available for $14, up from $12.50.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium will continue to cost $22.
The entry-level Office 365 E1 offering for enterprises will still be sold for $10.
Office 365 E3 will jump 13% to $26 from $23.
The Microsoft 365 E3 package including Windows for enterprises will rise 8% to $39 from $36.
The full-featured Microsoft 365 E5 will increase to $60 from $57.
For front-line workers such as cashiers, Microsoft 365 F1 subscriptions will cost $3, up from $2.25.
Microsoft 365 F3 will be available for $10, up from $8.
The U.S. Defense Department and other government clients will face similar percentage price increases.
The various subscriptions all exclude access to the $30 Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on that draws on generative artificial intelligence models. Some companies have started widely rolling out Copilot, while others have held off on expanding their deployments, CNBC reported last week.
In many cases, organizations receive discounts off of list prices, but Microsoft has cut back on direct volume deals for some types of customers.
Almost 43% of Microsoft’s $77.7 billion in fiscal first-quarter revenue came from its Productivity and Businesses Processes segment, which includes Office. In October, the company said revenue from Microsoft 365 commercial cloud services jumped 17%, while seats increased 6%, mainly from products targeting small and medium-sized businesses and front-line workers.