Carl Icahn is seeking to get rid of “legacy conflicted directors” on Illumina’s board following the announcement that GRAIL will be divested after a drawn out antitrust battle with regulators.
Pictured: Illumina in San Diego/iStock, Georgejason
Activist investor Carl Icahn is at it again—planning to give the boot to Illumina’s board of “legacy conflicted directors.” Icahn disclosed his plans in a letter to shareholders Monday after the company said it would divest GRAIL, according to Reuters.
Illumina announced Sunday it was throwing in the towel on GRAIL, following a drawn out antitrust battle with regulators over the cancer testing company’s acquisition. On Friday, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed there was evidence the deal was anti-competitive.
The $7 billion acquisition of GRAIL has been Icahn’s greatest complaint against Illumina. The gene-sequencing company went forward with the buy despite opposition from antitrust regulators. The legal woes that followed caused a 75% drop in Illumina’s share price, losing $55 billion in value for its shareholders, Icahn stated in Monday’s letter in which he applauded the decision to divest GRAIL but said that alone is not enough.
In June 2023, Illumina’s then-CEO Francis deSouza was pushed out of the helm. At the time, Icahn attempted to have three of his representatives placed on the board, but only one was elected.
“It would be a great mistake to allow the legacy conflicted directors to influence Illumina given their history of reckless decision making and value destruction,” Icahn’s letter said, while clarifying that the conflicted directors are those worried about personal liability for the “billions of dollars they have cost the company through their negligence.”
According to Reuters, only four directors—Scott Ullem, Teno, Stephen MacMillan and the company’s new CEO Jacob Thaysen—played no role in recent decisions. In his letter, Icahn did not divulge details of his plans but could target as many as seven directors for removal.
Icahn also filed a lawsuit against the board in October 2023, for breach of fiduciary duties by the directors. The 87-year-old activist had never sued a company’s board of directors prior to this.
GRAIL will be divested from Illumina through a third-party sale or capital markets transaction, according to the company’s announcement Sunday. Illumina was fined $476 million by the European Commission for “knowingly and intentionally” violating the commission’s merger regulations.
Kate Goodwin is a freelance life science writer based in Des Moines, Iowa. She can be reached at kate.goodwin@biospace.com and on LinkedIn.
