Activist Icahn prepares a second board challenge at Illumina -letter
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
(Reuters) -Activist investor Carl Icahn said on Monday that he plans to oust directors at Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN), laying the groundwork for a second board challenge at the gene-sequencing company months after shareholders elected one of his director candidates.
Icahn disclosed his plans without offering details in a letter to other shareholders less than 24 hours after Illumina said it will divest blood test maker Grail.
The billionaire investor had long been critical of Illumina's $7 billion Grail acquisition and made it a centrepiece of his previous proxy fight in which Andrew Teno, a portfolio manager working for Icahn, won a seat on the 11-member board.
In Monday's letter, Icahn blamed the Grail acquisition, which has faced regulatory challenges since 2021, for a 75% drop in Illumina's share price that he says wiped away $55 billion in value for shareholders. The stock was up more than 2% at $130.39 on Monday.
In October Icahn sued the board, accusing directors of breaching their fiduciary duties.
Icahn cheered the company's decision to divest Grail, but said the job at Illumina has not been fully completed.
«Our third goal is to remove these legacy conflicted directors,» Icahn wrote in a letter that was made public in a regulatory filing. His first two goals were to push out former CEO Francis deSouza, who resigned in June, and get Illumina to divest Grail, the letter said.
Illumina declined to comment.
Illumina's legacy directors cannot be trusted to oversee the disposal of Grail, Icahn wrote. «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.»
While Icahn has not revealed details
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