Carl Icahn further accuses Illumina board of 'obfuscation'
Mat Szwajkos

In his latest letter to Illumina shareholders, Carl Icahn has said that questions posed to the board are met with "silence and obfuscation" and he provided examples. 
"We believe the directors take this arrogant course of action because they assume they can act with impunity due to the protection afforded by large holders that will almost never vote against them," Icahn wrote in a Friday letter.
The billionaire investor is in an ongoing proxy battle with the company, and in particular, has been taking aim at CEO Francis deSouza.
In Icahn's first accusation of obfuscation, he said that he has pressed management for why they closed the acquisition of GRAIL despite antitrust regulator concerns in both the US and Europe, and the response led to more questions than answers.
Icahn also questioned why the acquisition was pursued in the first place given that after the closing, GRAIL "would generate only $100M in revenue and lose $800M in operating income per year."
The second obfuscation, he alleges, has to do with deSouza's involvement in the makeup of the company's board. Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) has denied deSouza has nominated any director.
The final example of obfuscation, according to Icahn, is why Illumina's (ILMN) board apparently demanded extra insurance coverage prior to going forward with the GRAIL acquisition. He added disclosure of this arrangement was made months after it happened.
"We believe the matters we have previously discussed â and Illuminaâs (ILMN) refusal to address them â are so egregious that the index funds and large mutual funds will be hard pressed to justify voting in favor of the incumbent board," Icahn concluded. "If we are correct, the message sent here will hopefully begin to dispel the widely held belief that directors do not need to consider the views of shareholders when taking action."
Earlier this month, the FTC issued an order for Illumina (ILMN) to divest GRAIL.