Illumina receives EU clearance for planned Grail divestment

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.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.