Illumina, the DNA sequencing giant whose stock has fallen 40% in two years, already had problems. Now it has to contend with Carl Icahn.
The granddaddy of activist investors announced Monday morning that he’s taken a stake in Illumina and wants three handpicked directors added to the company’s board. The message Illumina’s management should hear is this: Icahn usually gets much of what he wants. He tends to leave investors in better shape than before he arrived. But he is not always so kind to existing management teams.
In an open letter, Icahn called Illumina’s actions related to its pursuit of its merger with Grail, maker of a cancer screening blood test, “ill-advised (and frankly inexplicable).” He also argued repeatedly that the company’s management and board of directors had failed to keep investors’ interests at heart, suggesting that if the managers of a family-owned company had made the decisions Illumina’s top brass have, they would be fired.
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