LUMENIS LTD.
Yokneam Industrial Park, P.O.Box 240, Yokneam 20692
October 22, 2004
THIS PROXY IS SOLICITED ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The undersigned hereby acknowledges receipt of the Notice of Special General Meeting of Shareholders and the accompanying Proxy Statement for the 2004 Special General Meeting of Shareholders, revokes all prior proxies, and hereby appoints Kevin Morano and Lauri Hanover, and each of them acting alone, as attorneys, agents and proxies of the undersigned, each with the power to appoint and substitute, and hereby authorizes each of them to represent and to vote as designated on the reverse side, all the Ordinary Shares of Lumenis Ltd., (the “Company”) held of record by the undersigned on September 23, 2004 at the 2004 Special General Meeting of Shareholders to be held on October 22, 2004 and at any postponements or adjournments thereof.
PLEASE MARK, SIGN, DATE AND RETURN THE PROXY CARD PROMPTLY, USING THE ENCLOSED ENVELOPE. THIS PROXY WILL BE VOTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE INSTRUCTIONS INDICATED; HOWEVER, IF NO INSTRUCTIONS ARE GIVEN, THIS PROXY WILL BE VOTED “FOR” THE PROPOSALS LISTED AND IN THE DISCRETION OF THE PROXIES ON ALL SUCH OTHER MATTERS AS MAY PROPERLY COME BEFORE THE 2004 SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS AND ANY AND ALL POSTPONEMENTS AND ADJOURNMENTS THEREOF.
(Continued and to be signed on the reverse side)
Annex A
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, DC 20549
FORM 8-K/A
(Amendment No. 1)
CURRENT REPORT
PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF THE
SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
May 12, 2004 (May 5, 2004)
Date of Report (Date of Earliest Event Reported)
LUMENIS LTD.
(Exact name of Registrant as Specified in Charter)
Israel —————————————— (State or Other Jurisdiction of Incorporation) | 0-13012 —————————————— (Commission File Number) | N.A. —————————————— (IRS Employer Identification No.) |
P.O. Box 240, Yokneam, Israel —————————————— (Address of Principal Executive Offices) | 20692 —————————————— (Zip Code) |
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: 972-4-959-9000
N/A —————————————————————————————— (Former Name or Former Address, if Changed Since Last Report) |
Lumenis Ltd. Is filing this amendment to its Current Report on Form 8-K, that was filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission to amend and restate Items 4 and 7 thereof.
Item 4. | Changes in Registrant’s Certifying Accountant. |
On May 5, 2004, Brightman Almagor & Co. (Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu) (“Deloitte”) informed Lumenis Ltd. (“Lumenis” or the “Company”) that Deloitte was resigning from its position as the independent auditors of Lumenis, effective as of such date. A copy of the letter that Deloitte sent to Lumenis confirming Deloitte’s resignation is attached to this Form 8-K as Exhibit 99.1.
Background: Toward the end of the third quarter of 2003, following the deposition by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) of a person who had been a member of Deloitte’s U.S. audit team taken in connection with the then ongoing investigation by the SEC, Deloitte sent a letter to the Audit Committee expressing concern that certain payment and other terms regarding one of the Company’s distributors may not have been disclosed to Deloitte, and asking that the Audit Committee conduct an independent investigation into the Company’s relationship with, and accounting treatment and disclosures related to, that distributor. Deloitte indicated that it would need to evaluate the results of such investigation prior to conducting any further review or audit of the Company’s financial statements. In light of this, Deloitte has not reviewed the interim financial statements included in the Company’s most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q , as required pursuant to Rule 10-01(d) of the SEC’s Regulation S-X, nor has it audited the Company’s financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2003.
Following receipt of the letter from Deloitte, the Audit Committee retained the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP (“Debevoise”) to conduct an internal investigation which initially focused on accounting and disclosure issues related to the Company’s relationship with one of its domestic distributors. Subsequently, at the request of Deloitte, the scope of the investigation was expanded to include a comprehensive review of the Company’s revenue recognition practices during 2002 and 2003, as well as certain transactions recorded in 2001. A forensic auditor was also retained by Debevoise to assist in the investigation.
The Audit Committee received the Report of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP to the Audit Committee of Lumenis Ltd. (the “Report”) and, thereafter, shared the Report with Deloitte. A summary of the initial results of the investigation as reflected in the Report was provided by the Company in a press release dated May 3, 2004. As described in greater detail in that release, the Report concluded that the timing of the Company’s revenue recognition was inappropriate with respect to certain identified transactions.
After reviewing the Report, Deloitte advised the Company that it had concluded that it was no longer willing to rely on representations from the Company’s Chief Financial Officer and certain other financial personnel. Deloitte also indicated its belief that a more comprehensive review of transactions in 2001, as well as certain transactions involving the Company’s Opus Dent subsidiary, was still required. In addition, Deloitte noted that, in its view, the Report contained inaccuracies regarding references to Deloitte and its personnel. Deloitte did not specify the nature of the inaccuracies.
As described in the Company’s May 3rd press release, the Company had indicated to Deloitte that it would be taking further investigative steps, including a more comprehensive review of transactions recorded in the Company’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2001, and that it would be reorganizing certain of its financial reporting functions. In that connection and as described in the Company’s May 3rd press release, Deloitte had previously advised the Company that it would not be in a position to evaluate whether it would be willing to make any commitment to continue as the Company’s auditor until new financial personnel were in place and the additional investigative steps were completed.
Previous Reports on Lumenis Financial Statements and Disagreements with the Auditors: The reports of Deloitte on the financial statements of Lumenis for each of the fiscal years ended December 31, 2001 and December 31, 2002 contained no adverse opinions or disclaimer of opinion and were not qualified or modified as to uncertainty, audit scope or accounting principles. However, as noted in the Company’s May 3, 2004 press release, transactions recorded in such years have been the subject of the internal investigation and the Company has not made a definitive determination concerning a possible restatement of such years. Deloitte did not audit the Company’s financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2003 or issue an opinion with regard thereto.
Except to the extent discussed above in this Form 8-K, for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2002 and December 31, 2003 and through the date of this report, there were no disagreements with Deloitte on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure or audit scope or procedure which, if not resolved to the satisfaction of Deloitte, would have caused it to make reference to the subject matter as such disagreement in its reports on the financial statements for such fiscal years. Nor, except to the extent discussed above in this Form 8-K, were there any reportable events within the meaning of Item 304(a)(1)(v) of Regulation S-K for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2002 and December 31, 2003 and through the date of this report. With respect to the matters discussed above in this Form 8-K, the Audit Committee has authorized Deloitte to respond fully to inquiries of any successor accountant.
Other Information: Lumenis has provided Deloitte a copy of this Form 8-K and requested Deloitte to furnish it with a letter addressed to the Securities and Exchange Commission stating whether it agrees with the statements made herein, and, if not, stating the respects in which it does not agree. A copy of the letter received from Deloitte is filed as Exhibit 16.1 hereof.
The Press Release issued by Lumenis on May 7, 2004 announcing the resignation of Deloitte as Lumenis’ independent auditors is attached as Exhibit 99.2 and incorporated herein by reference.
Item 7. | Financial Statements and Exhibits. |
| 16.1 | Letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission From Deloitte, dated May 24, 2004. |
| 99.1 | Letter to Lumenis Ltd. From Deloitte, dated May 6, 2004.1 |
| 99.2 | Press Release issued by Lumenis Ltd., dated May 7, 2004.1 |
Signatures
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.
| | LUMENIS LTD.
BY: /s/ Avner Raz —————————————— Avner Raz President and CEO |
Dated: May 25, 2004
EXHIBIT INDEX
| 16.1 | Letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission From Deloitte, dated May 24, 2004. |
| 99.1 | Letter to Lumenis Ltd. From Deloitte, dated May 6, 2004.1 |
| 99.2 | Press Release issued by Lumenis Ltd., dated May 7, 2004.1 |
Exhibit 16.1
![](https://capedge.com/proxy/DEF 14A/0001178913-04-001288/deloitte.jpg)
| Brightman Almagor 1 Azrieli Center Tel Aviv 67021 P.O.B. 16593, Tel Aviv 61164 Israel
|
| Tel: +972 (3) 608 5555 Fax: +972 (3) 609 4022 info@deloitte.co.il www.deloitte.com |
Date: May 24, 2004
Our Ref: 766938
Securities and Exchange Commission
450 5th Street. N.W.
Washington, DC 20549
Dear Sir or Madam:
This letter is being furnished by Brightman Almagor & Co. (a member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu) (“Deloitte”) pursuant to Item 304(a) of Regulation S-K of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). We have read the Current Report on Form 8-K (“8-K”) filed by Lumenis Ltd. (“Lumenis” or the “Company”) with the SEC on May 12, 2004 (a copy of which is attached hereto) and have the following comments:
| 1. | We agree with the statements made in the first paragraph. |
| 2. | With respect to the paragraphs under the heading “Background”: |
| — | We disagree with statements made in the first sentence of the first paragraph. Deloitte first brought certain matters to the attention of the Audit Committee of Lumenis in a letter dated September 24, 2003 and amplified those matters in a conference call on September 25, 2003. The concerns expressed by Deloitte were not limited to accounting and disclosure issues with respect to the Company’s arrangements with one of its distributors; the concerns raised by Deloitte extended to revenue recognition broadly and whether management withheld information or gave incomplete information during the audits or reviews of Lumenis’s consolidated financial statements. While we agree that Deloitte asked the Audit Committee to conduct an independent investigation, we disagree with the description of what Deloitte asked the Committee to investigate. Deloitte stated to the Audit Committee that the investigation should be conducted for the primary purpose of determining whether or not fraudulent financial reporting had occurred and specifically to determine, if such was found, what had occurred, who was responsible and what remedial actions would be necessary. |
![](https://capedge.com/proxy/DEF 14A/0001178913-04-001288/deloitte.jpg)
| — | We disagree with the statements made in second sentence of the first paragraph. Deloitte indicated in the September 25, 2003 conference call that it would not perform audit or review services for the Company or be associated with the release of any financial information by the Company until the investigation was completed and Deloitte was satisfied with the resolution of the investigation by the Audit Committee. |
| — | We agree with the statements made in the third sentence of the first paragraph. |
| — | We have no basis upon which to agree or disagree with the statements made regarding what Debevoise “initially focused on”. We agree that Debevoise was retained by the Audit Committee to conduct an investigation. |
| — | We disagree with the statements made in the second sentence of the second paragraph because it is incomplete and inaccurately suggests that the investigation was expanded “subsequently” at the request of Deloitte. We received a report from counsel conducting the investigation on December 4, 2003. Following receipt of that report, Deloitte advised the Audit Committee that the report left open certain fundamental questions and did not address all of the issues that Deloitte had previously raised with the Audit Committee. Specifically, Deloitte described its principal concerns with the report (all of which were consistent with Deloitte’s original request) as follows: (1) the scope of the investigation did not address all of the issues that Deloitte had originally raised nor did the investigation involve an audit or forensic accounting expert; (2) the report did not contain an explicit evaluation of the knowledge or participation by the Company’s management personnel, so that Deloitte could assess whether it was willing or able to rely on representations from such personnel; (3) the report did not address the appropriate accounting for each reviewed transaction or provide an analysis of the financial statement impact of any misstatements; and (4) the report did not contain the conclusions of the Audit Committee with respect to the investigation. |
2
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| — | We agree with the statements made in the third sentence of the second paragraph in that a forensic auditor was hired subsequent to December 4, 2003. |
| — | We agree with the statements made in the first sentence of the third paragraph in that a second report was reviewed with Deloitte at a meeting held with the Audit Committee Chairman and certain members of the Audit Committee, the Company’s CEO and certain other participants on February 20, 2004. |
| — | With respect to the statements made in the second and third sentences of the third paragraph, we agree that the Company issued a press release on May 3, 2004. We make no comment as to the accuracy or completeness of the Company’s press release. The press release was issued by the Company without obtaining Deloitte’s permission for the references to Deloitte. We agree that the report reviewed with Deloitte on February 20, 2004 included a conclusion that the timing of the Company’s revenue recognition was inappropriate with respect to certain transactions. |
| — | We agree with the statements made in the first sentence of the fourth paragraph. |
| — | We disagree with the statements made in the second sentence of the fourth paragraph. In addition to the matters referred to in this sentence, on March 1, 2004, Deloitte summarized for the Audit Committee certain outstanding matters relating to the investigation that had not yet been completed, including a number of matters that had been raised in previous communications with the Audit Committee. |
| — | We agree with the statements made in the third sentence of the fourth paragraph. |
| — | We disagree with the statements made in fourth sentence of the fourth paragraph. Deloitte provided an example of the inaccuracies, indicated that it chose not to use the meeting time with the Company to discuss the details, and the Company did not ask for any further details. |
3
![](https://capedge.com/proxy/DEF 14A/0001178913-04-001288/deloitte.jpg)
| — | Excluding the references made to the Company’s May 3, 2004 press release, we agree with the statements made in the fifth paragraph. As previously stated, we make no comment as to the accuracy or completeness of the Company’s May 3, 2004 press release. At the time of Deloitte’s resignation, the investigation by the Audit Committee and the reorganization of the Company’s finance function had not been completed to Deloitte’s satisfaction. |
| 3. | With respect to the paragraphs under the heading “Previous Reports on Lumenis Financial Statements and Disagreements with Auditors”: |
| — | We agree with the statements made in the first paragraph. |
| — | We disagree with the statements made in the first sentence of the second paragraph. We did not audit and therefore we did not issue a report on the Company’s financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2003. |
| — | We disagree with the statements made in the second sentence of the second paragraph. In addition to the matters discussed in the Company’s Form 8-K, we view the following to be reportable events. |
| 1. | An anonymous letter containing certain alleged improper conduct at OpusDent, a subsidiary of the Company, was provided by Deloitte to the Audit Committee for inclusion in the scope of their investigation. At the time of Deloitte’s resignation, this matter had not been resolved to Deloitte’s satisfaction. |
| 2. | With respect to our audit for the year ended December 31, 2002, we issued a management letter describing what we considered to be “Reportable Conditions.” Such findings were communicated to the Audit Committee. The Reportable Conditions related to a lack of written accounting guidance, problems in the Company’s inventory management, inadequate physical control over fixed assets, lack of documentation and training around revenue recognition, and discrepancies in information maintained by the Company and an external service organization that keeps the Company’s stock options plan records. |
4
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| — | We disagree with the statements made in the third sentence of the second paragraph. Deloitte has not received authorization from the Company or its Audit Committee to respond fully to inquiries of any successor accountant with respect to the matters discussed in the Company’s Form 8-K. |
| 4. | With respect to the paragraph under the heading “Other Information”: |
| — | We agree with the statement made in the first paragraph. |
| — | With respect to the sentence made in the second paragraph, we agree that the Company issued a press release announcing the resignation of Deloitte on May 7, 2004. We make no comment as to the accuracy or completeness of the Company’s press release. |
Yours truly
Brightman Almagor & Co.
Certified Public Accountants
A member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
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