Illumina says Icahn’s campaign ‘spreading false information’

Illumina issued a shareholder letter, in which it stated in part: "As you may have heard, activist investor Carl Icahn has launched a self-serving and deliberately misleading campaign against our company, and we urge you to discard any gold proxy card you may have received from Icahn’s group and only vote the white proxy card… An inflammatory blog post, repeated by Icahn, incorrectly suggested that Illumina spun out and reacquired GRAIL in order to enrich Illumina’s directors and executives. Icahn himself, however, admits ‘We have no idea if the allegations are true.’ The allegations are completely false… Carl Icahn seeks to replace Mr. deSouza, Robert Epstein, MD, and Mr. Thompson, with his unqualified nominees as directors at the 2023 Annual Meeting. Icahn’s nominees, all of whom are current or former employees of Icahn, cannot replace the unique collection of strengths and experience that these three directors bring to the Board… Icahn’s campaign is willfully misinforming, has no plan to create shareholder value, and his nominees are potentially harmful to our core business… Illumina’s Board does not endorse Carl Icahn or his unqualified nominees and believes the election of any such nominees would detract from Illumina’s strong momentum and deprive the Board of critical leadership and perspective required for the execution of the business. Illumina firmly believes that it has the right team and strategy in place to deliver long-term sustainable value for shareholders."