STAT+: Illumina shareholders elect one Icahn ally to board, as company holds off broader challenge

Illumina shareholders elect one of Carl Icahn's allies to board, but the company held off a bid to oust other directors, including CEO Francis deSouza.

May 25, 2023 - 20:00
STAT+: Illumina shareholders elect one Icahn ally to board, as company holds off broader challenge

Shareholders in the DNA-sequencing firm Illumina on Thursday voted to replace the company’s chairman with a candidate put forward by the activist investor Carl Icahn, even as Illumina held off an effort to oust other directors, including CEO Francis deSouza.

Andrew Teno, a portfolio manager at Icahn Capital, will replace John Thompson, the former CEO of software firm Symantec and until now Illumina’s chairman. A new chair will be selected over the coming weeks.

The vote represents a rebuke to the company’s current strategy, and to its decision to buy the cancer diagnostics firm Grail, an Illumina spinout, for $8 billion without approval from U.S. and European regulators. It is possible that European regulators will make Illumina divest the firm, most likely at a much lower valuation.

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…

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