Illumina loses EU antitrust probe challenge over Grail acquisition

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• The shares of Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) lost ~3% in the pre-market Wednesday after a top European court upheld a decision by the EU’s competition authority to review the company’s $8B acquisition of cancer test developer Grail.
• The General Court of the European Union, the bloc’s second-highest judicial body agreed that the cash and stock deal that Illumina (ILMN) announced in 2020 is subject to EU scrutiny even though it did not meet the EU’s traditional, revenue-based criteria for review.
• "The Commission has the competence to examine that concentration which did not have a European dimension or fall within the scope of the national merger control rules of member states of the European Union or states party to the agreement on the European Economic Area," the General Court noted.
• Illumina (ILMN) said the company would appeal the ruling to the region’s highest judicial body, the Court of Justice of the European Union.
• In September, the European Commission announced actions against Illumina (ILMN) for closing the Grail acquisition early while it was under the review of the EU regulators.

Comments

[El Jefe Francisco]

My confidence in the EU has gone down over the last 25 years. It appears the courts are as bad off as their markets.

[Gravity404]

just close up the 3 EU offices (France, Germany and the Netherlands) and move on. This is all political. There is plenty of competition. This is like stopping Gillette from selling the handles and the blades claiming anti-competition.

[Cubby T]

Wow, this is a new bright line in the sand that is gonna have some far reaching implications. Glad it’s happening now instead of ten years from now.

[bluescorpion0]

the ruling is good news. it is illumina CEO stubborn insistence to appeal that is tanking the stock.

[donzoab]

@scorpionblue you’re wrong. The EU is wildly over reaching here. Plenty of competition. EU is a socialist nightmare.

[bluescorpion0]

be that as it may, the overreaching actually works in Illumina favour if they would only take the exit ramp given to them at this point. Well I am clearly not a believer in the prospects of Grail and how much they paid for it..