A quiet corner of the medical device world turned into one of the more public corporate disputes of the summer this week. InMode Ltd. (NASDAQ: INMD), an Israel based maker of radio frequency devices used in cosmetic and reconstructive procedures, has become the target of two competing efforts to take the company private, and the disagreement between the parties has spilled into open letters, public statements and a deadline the board now has to answer.
The company builds equipment used by dermatologists, plastic surgeons and other physicians for procedures such as skin tightening, fat reduction and treatments related to women’s health. Its devices rely on radio frequency energy to reach tissue beneath the skin without the need for more invasive surgery, a niche that has made InMode a recognizable name among practices that offer aesthetic treatments (MarketScreener). InMode sells its systems to clinics rather than directly to patients, so its revenue tends to move with how willing physicians are to invest in new capital equipment each year, a pattern that has made the company’s growth rate a frequent talking point among the investors now weighing in on its future.
The dispute traces back to January, when Steel Partners Holdings L.P. (OTCQX: SPLP), a diversified holding company and long standing InMode shareholder, offered $18.00 per share for a 51% stake in the company. That proposal represented a 29% premium over InMode’s unaffected share price of $13.95, yet Steel Partners says the company’s special committee never gave it a substantive response.
Momentum shifted in late June, when InMode disclosed a separate, unsolicited offer worth $16.20 per share, a 21% premium over the stock’s prior closing price. That bid came from MN Business Strategy, a group that includes InMode co-founder and chief executive Moshe Mizrahy. The board responded by forming a special committee of independent directors to evaluate the proposal.
Steel Partners has objected strongly to that sequence of events. In a letter sent to InMode’s board on June 30, the firm argued that a bid organized by the company’s own chief executive, priced below its own earlier offer, should not be treated more favorably than an outside proposal. The letter also raised questions about whether Mizrahy’s public comments about softer 2026 results and pressure on margins were intended to lower expectations ahead of his group’s bid.
Steel Partners escalated further today, offering to acquire 100% of InMode’s outstanding shares for $16.75 per share in cash, a figure that tops the CEO led group’s $16.20 offer. Steel Partners said the structure would let existing shareholders roll over as much as 40% of their equity into the combined company once it is under Steel’s ownership. The firm also called for Mizrahy’s removal as chief executive, citing concerns about the fairness of the process.
Steel Partners gave InMode’s board a hard deadline, demanding a written response from independent directors by 5 p.m. Eastern on July 13th, warning that a failure to engage would leave shareholders and regulators to draw their own conclusions about how fairly the process was run.
The market reaction was immediate. InMode shares rose 4% in premarket trading after news of the higher offer broke, reflecting investor expectations that the competing bids could push the eventual purchase price higher than either side’s opening number.
What happens next depends largely on how InMode’s board and its special committee respond to Steel Partners’ demand. A rejection or continued silence would likely draw further public pressure, while engagement could open a more formal auction process between the two camps. Either path leaves the company’s roughly $1 billion market value, and the terms under which its shareholders eventually cash out, still very much in play. Investors watching this situation will need to track two things at once, the price each side is willing to pay and the process the board chooses to run, since a governance fight over fairness can end up shaping the outcome as much as the dollar figures themselves.
