For the last two days or so, I have been diligently attempting to find out what is going on at Masimo as the company’s main website – Masimo.com – has been down for at least the last 2½ days (as of the time of this writing on mid-day Thursday)! The only thing visitors find when they navigate to the site is the “be back shortly” message shown above, along with a Masimo logo above it.
See more on Masimo.com going dark…
What is really weird is that not all Masimo-related websites are down. For example, its investor relations website appears to be fully operational. Likewise, the company’s “shop” site, set up to allow consumers to purchase Masimo Consumer Healthcare products directly from the company, is also accessible. Although, interestingly, all items are listed as “Coming soon.” But at least it is working.
Since I couldn’t come up with any reasonable explanation on my own as to why Masimo.com would be dark, I decided to approach the company to find out what was happening. I followed all of the typical protocols, reaching out to the company’s media contacts looking for an answer as to why their “maintenance” is taking so long and what caused the site to go down in the first place. My calls were not immediately answered, so I left messages in the hopes a return call would happen quickly. But a return call did not happen quickly. In fact, it didn’t happen at all…at least not initially.
We Know and We Are Working On It
I then reached out to an inside source at the company who looked into the matter and finally brought me an answer – the only answer that source could get – from the parties at the center of the issue.
“Yes, we know our website is down and we are working on it.”
I felt like the company was avoiding me and my questions. And for media, that is typically a red flag. For example, were this to be a legitimate example of routine maintenance, the company’s media person would simply indicate that and give me a rough idea of when such maintenance would be completed. But avoiding my calls, emails, and other inquiries raised my suspicions.
A Highly Technical Company Has a Tech Meltdown; Was Masimo Hacked? Ransomware? Espionage?
For a two-billion-dollar MedTech company to have a technical meltdown of its main website seems really unusual to me. To my knowledge, this has never happened in the two years I’ve been following them. In fact, other than a few spurious outages from time to time – usually connected to large regional storms – I’m not aware of any major brand suffering a multi-day outage to this extent.
I can only speculate as to what the cause might be. Was Masimo hacked? Are they a victim of ransomware? Is this a case of industrial espionage or terrorism? It seemed to me that, given such a protracted outage of a critical company market communications outlet, the real cause must be something fairly significant.
Not to be Deterred, I Tried a Different Approach
Not to be deterred, I tried calling the company’s main telephone number (normally displayed on its website) to see if I could raise someone who could give me more information on what was going on with Masimo.com. Yet when I dialed this number, I continually got a recorded message that “All circuits are busy, please try your call later,” which people more knowledgeable than me on telecommunications systems tell me is typically an indication that the company is being inundated with more calls at any one moment than they have available lines to handle them.
Then I tried reaching out to the company’s customer support phone lines. They were working, although quite slowly. After waiting around ten minutes or so, I finally reached a customer support representative. Although I missed her name due to a poor-quality phone line (probably because it is a coast-to-coast connection) she was quite pleasant and tried to be as helpful as she could be. Although, like me, she didn’t know much about what was going on.
Edited Transcript of My Call With Masimo Customer Support
Me: Is your website down?
Masimo Customer Support Representative (MCS): Yes, we are experiencing some difficulties. We can’t even pull it up ourselves.
Me: Do you know when it will be up again?
MCS: I do not, I do apologize. We are expecting for it to get back to working services at any moment, but as of right now, we are not ourselves even able to look up any information.
Me: Do you know what happened? Did you guys get hacked?
MCS: [Chuckles] Even if I knew, I wouldn’t be able to tell you that. But no, we’re kind of in the dark right now. I do apologize. All I can say is if you can please keep checking back, maybe tomorrow. Hopefully, we’ll be back up. You’re always welcome to talk to us but there’s really nothing that we can even pull up ourselves. The phones are working…but that’s about it.
Me: Do you know how long its been down?
MCS: Yes, it’s been down for the past few days.
Me: Oh my goodness!
MCS: Yes, I said the same thing.
Phone call between myself and Masimo Customer Support
Internal Masimo Systems Appear To Be Impacted As Well
So from what this rep told me, some of the company’s internal systems have apparently been affected as well, as customer support’s computers are also down. Consequently, Masimo customer support reps are unable to provide any detailed product information to callers.
As most Strata-gee readers know, I have been following Masimo quite closely ever since February of 2022 when it acquired Sound United, a leading audio industry company with a portfolio of some of the top audio brands. Historically significant brands such as Marantz, Denon, Polk Audio, Bowers & Wilkins, Classé, and more were now to be owned by a leading supplier of pulse oximetry equipment for hospitals.
As I said in my initial report: “The ‘synergy’ between these two companies is not immediately obvious.”
Kiami’s Plans for Sound United Didn’t Work Out
Over the last two years, there have been more details emerge as to just what Masimo Founder and CEO Joe Kiani’s plans were for the company. But those plans were spoon-fed to the market and a little hazy and loosey-goosey. In general, they sounded far-fetched. In any event, last year, Kiani left the company and a new management was brought in to chart a new path for the company. And Sound United, the company made clear, was not to be part of that bright new future.
We have been told that the company was holding discussions with multiple interested parties, although the identities of those interested parties have never surfaced. For this reason, I have continued to follow the situation quite closely as it seems that Sound United will soon no longer be a part of Masimo.
Message on Masimo Website Changed on Thursday Afternoon
At about 3:00 pm Thursday afternoon, the message on the Masimo website changed. Now it reads as shown below…
Was this suddenly updated message the result of my persistent inquiries? In an email from a company PR person, it was suggested I refer to that text as their comment on the matter. That seems to suggest that yes, this changed text was done to quell the questions. But the company still hasn’t gotten back to me with any logical explanation for what caused the issue or when they anticipate restoring full web service.
The Company’s Reaction Seems Suspicious
That lack of transparency and insufficient communication from the company seems suspicious. All online media – Strata-gee.com included – have had some intermittent downtimes over the years. But I’ve never suffered a multi-day outage like this. Granted, my business is a much simpler one – but still, they have far greater resources to address situations like this.
Masimo is, after all, a technology company…
See Masimo’s home page here: masimo.com.
Inside source in Irvine headquarters said the FBI was there this week and that this is worldwide in a Masimo facilities and they are currently down.
Anon,
If true, then that sounds like a ransomware attack.
Ted
https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/masimo-reports-cyber-attack-slowing-manufacturing-sales
Yeah they was hacked. More to come from this minimal statement
Ted, all too common with healthcare related companies. In terms of cyberattacks, healthcare as a category remains highly vulnerable. On that side, we had last year the MOAH (mother of all hacks) with the Optum-owned Change Healthcare which went into the records of maybe 100 million….UHG had purchased the company which is the largest in payment data and claims verification, and evidently didn’t do any cleanup of their IT. Hospitals have cyber incidents all the time because they deal with multiple systems and IT doesn’t get the budget it should. Devices generally fare better because IT people are generally further up in management. That is why if this is a hack/cyberattack, this is relatively unusual.
As to Masimo, I’d say that for all their systems to be down except the investor pages and some of the shop, that no one in the prior management paid attention to securing and hardening the site and their internal systems. The ransomware experts are generally in the former Soviet Union, and roam the web in search of vulnerable sites. They are very very good at what they do.
The irony is that the previous management benefits from this hack….right after the annual meeting! It is not a good look for the new Masimo. (I’ll take off my tinfoil hat now.).
Masimo is the worst company ever! They are not transparent and put patient lives in jeopardy because of their greed corporately and otherwise!!!
Exactly right. They know some products have issues, yet continue to sell them, taking little accountability. DOJ, FDA, and (I believe) the SEC. The whistleblowers have done the right things in all cases.
Not to mention the patient fatalities they had last year due to faulty products. Scary! Nothing a little googling doesn’t provide background on.
I have heard from my personal sources at Masimo that the entire company is shut down. Most employees are unable to do any work, and are being told to stay home. Manufacturing has shut down at all locations, and all internal systems are locked down. Orders are not shipping to customers.
Not surprising that they’re so hush hush about this when the upcoming investors call is next week. Would stock still be ticking up the last few days if the market knew the company was all but shut down?
Spoke with my contact again today, HQ employees are still out of the office, and the system is still locked down. This has been going on now since last Sunday mid-day, so over a week.
The investors call is still scheduled for tomorrow, so time is ticking here. I’ll be listening in myself to hear what the “reason” for the shutdown is, and I’m still watching my stocks.
Tik tok, Katie, Bilal, and team
This is disgusting! Spoke with a contact also, all Masimo servers are down still. Curious is they are selling and jumping ship!
Having spent several years with this company, I can confidently say that my departure was a significant relief in several different ways. I found the work environment to be toxic, where bullying and intimidation tactics were prevalent, especially among the sales leadership Matt A et al….It seemed that if you did not fit into their specific criteria or were singled out for any reason, the experience could be incredibly challenging and disheartening.
Moreover, I feel compelled to address the misleading claims of being a healthcare IT company. In my observation, the leadership appears to lack a genuine understanding of the healthcare IT landscape, focusing instead on their core products like disposable sticky sensors. This misrepresentation does a disservice to both employees and customers alike. And patients…..
I’ve also been struck by the sales organization’s delusional approach, which at times reminded me more of used car sales tactics than those of a so called respected healthcare company. There were instances where dishonesty “”only”” prevailed, which is concerning in a field that should be grounded in integrity, ethics and trust. NOT Money!!
If true, how come they have not gone public?
I just attempted to access the site, still isn’t connecting, thats a long haul maintenance update they are reportedly doing. Very unfortunate if they are not being transparent and providing honest feedback about the situation. :( They are in healthcare :(
As of yesterday, they had professional product pages up at https://www.masimo.com but if you entered masimo.com alone you’d go down the rabbit hole to a Canadian pathed site. I don’t know who’s responsible for their website but it’s a disaster. I wrote about it on my update at telecareaware.com–I cover Masimo as a health tech company. Greatly appreciate Ted’s coverage.
lol…you guys are obsessed with Massimo but missed the fact that they sold their audio brands to Harman…
No lol because they touch human lives and their negligence could have negative impact. M*ron.
No lol because they touch human lives and their negligence could have negative impact. M*ron. Hope you are not hooked up to their stuff
Sound United sale was announced yesterday 5/6 in a separate release. It was alluded to but not specified on the 5/6 investor call. I have the updates over at TTA but Ted will have the in-depth inside baseball coverage for the audio folks. I’m only a humble writer about health tech!
BTW, Masimo admitted the hack on their 8-K.