Illumina Board Approves Grail Spin-Off to Address Antitrust Concerns

Gelonghui June 4 | The board of Illumina, a U.S.-based genetic testing company, announced on Monday that it has approved the spin-off of GRAIL, Inc. Shareholders will receive one share of GRAIL common stock for every six shares of Illumina stock held. After the spin-off on June 24, Illumina will retain 14.5% of GRAIL. Illumina originally founded and spun off GRAIL in 2016 but reacquired the company in 2021 for $7.1 billion to enter the early cancer detection market. The deal faced opposition from antitrust regulators, who were concerned that Illumina might prevent GRAIL’s competitors from using its technology to develop competing blood-based early cancer detection products. Because Illumina completed the acquisition before obtaining antitrust approval, EU regulators fined the company a record €432 million in July of last year. Excessive spending by GRAIL, along with delays in advancing its tests, also forced Illumina to write down the value of the acquisition. Activist investor Carl Icahn noted in December that the total impairment had reached $4.7 billion.