Carl Icahn Takes on Illumina (ILMN)

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Icahn Set for Proxy Battle with Illumina (ILMN)

Carl Icahn has been at odds with Illumina (ILMN) over his displeasure of their re-acquisition of GRAIL, and is waging a proxy battle to get three directors appointed to ILMN board. In this post we take a look at some of his (non-GRAIL deal specific related) points using the Boardroom Alpha platform.

Read Carl Icahn’s presentation on Illumina (ILMN) here.

Value destruction since closing the GRAIL deal.

Illumina’s stock is down ~57% vs. a -7% return for the S&P 500 since the GRAIL deal closed in August 2021.

A massive loss in value since Illumina’s GRAIL acquisition

Illumina Financial Performance under Francis deSouza

Illumina’s share price performance and fundamental financials have lagged its peers since Francis deSouza became CEO in 2016.

Under CEO Francis deSouza ILMN has trailed peers on most measures

Board Appointees Under deSouza

llumina’s board consists largely of appointees under deSouza’s tenure (except for Robert Epstein, Frances Arnold) with significant director turnover at the beginning of his tenure. 75% of the board started serving after deSouza took the helm.

Does deSouza control the board?

Illumina Chair John Thompson and Symantec

Icahn takes issue with Illumina Chairman John Thompson’s tenure as CEO of Symantec (now named Gen Digital), including their purchase of Veritas. Symantec purchased Veritas for $13.2B, and ultimately impaired by more than $7.5B

As CEO of Symnatec, John Thompson wrote down over $7.5B from their Veritas acquisition

CEO Pay at Illumina is Not Aligned with Performance

CEO pay at ILMN has soared as TSR has dropped

Bring Back Flatley?

Icahn has called for a new CEO, including suggesting Jay Flatley return on an interim or permanent basis. Flatley was Illumina’s CEO from 1999-2016 (board till 2021).

Illumina’s previous CEO Jay Flatley had the company beating most peers

BA’s Activist Vulnerability Flagged Issues Early at ILMN

Boardroom Alpha’s Activist Vulnerability score for Illumina spiked over a year in advance of Icahn’s proxy.

Recent Analysis

2026 Proxy Season Scorecard: Six Say-on-Pay Failures, AI Lands on Mega-Cap Ballots, and the Anti-ESG Pile-Up

Through May 21, 2026, U.S. public-company shareholders rejected six annual-meeting Say-on-Pay packages outright, voted against 18 directors at 14 companies, and crushed dozens of mega-cap shareholder proposals at sub-3% support. Plus: AI proposals filed at Alphabet, Meta, Walmart, and IBM; the split verdict on special-meeting rights; the activist-vote scorecard from four 2026 director-slate contests.

Weekly Recap: MO, OHI, WEN Rewire the C-Suite — May 22, 2026

Succession moved from emergency cleanup to portfolio rotation this week, with 24 CEO changes and 21 CFO changes across the tracked C-suite. Altria paired a CEO handoff with a CFO change, Omega Healthcare reset three senior finance and operating seats, and Wendy’s went back to the CEO market for the third time in three years.

Viasat Agrees to Add Two Carronade-Backed Directors

Viasat Inc. (VSAT) has entered into a cooperation agreement with Carronade Capital Management, expanding its board from eight to ten directors. This agreement comes as Viasat trails the S&P 500 by 6 points on a five-year CAGR basis. Carronade, holding a 3.8% stake, secures two independent board seats.

SPAC Market Update May 22, 2026: BRKH, PECE Price $140M of SPAC IPOs

BurTech Acquisition Corp II (BRKH) and Peace Acquisition Corp. (PECE) priced 2 SPAC IPOs on May 22, 2026, raising $140M combined. BRKH targets real estate, infrastructure and lifestyle brands; PECE targets businesses across Asia, excluding Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.

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