Illumina continues to resist Roche takeover

SAN DIEGO—There is now finally a date for the annual meeting of stockholders for Illumina Inc.: April 18. And with that date, a reassertion to the company's shareholders that they should reject an attempt by Roche to acquire the company.

 

 

Illumina began its letter to shareholders by saying the company "is a market leader in tools for genetic analysis at atime when our industry as a whole—and Illumina in particular—has thepotential to experience extraordinary growth." Genomics advances and personalized medicine are just two areas that have led the market to what Illumina calls "a breakthrough point"  where Illumina can be at the forefront.

Once again, Illumina called Roche's offer of $44.50 per share a "blatantly opportunistic hostile offer" at a price "significantly below where our stockprice was only a few months ago."

 

Further stoking the rhetoric, Illumina wrote, "We alone have succeeded in a marketplace thathas witnessed numerous attempts by others to establish viable sequencing andarray businesses, none of which have achieved a similar level of success. Infact, one of the reasons Roche is desperate to acquire Illumina is that Roche'sown efforts in our market have severely disappointed."

 

Roche, for its part, had no comment as of the end of day that Illumina had issued the media release about the proxy materials, meeting date and shareholder letter.