Illumina and Grail are another step closer to ending their yearslong antitrust saga.
The European Commission has approved Illumina’s divestment plan for Grail, the cancer diagnostic subsidiary that it had spun off but then bought back for $8 billion against the objections of competition regulators.
The action, disclosed Friday morning by Illumina, “does not mean the method of divestment has been finalized,” the company said. It’s still exploring various ways of offloading the unit, whether that’s a sale or capital markets transaction. The move to divest Grail comes after years of pushback from investors and a shakeup in the C-suite.
In a capital markets transaction, Illumina would have to capitalize Grail with two and a half years of funding or about $1 billion, it said. Final terms are expected to be set by the end of the second quarter, Illumina reiterated Friday.
The commission’s OK comes the same week Illumina said its CFO would depart, and a week after it was disclosed that activist investor Carl Icahn would give up a director seat on Illumina’s board held by Icahn Enterprises CEO Andrew Teno.