Illumina reportedly agrees to Roche's $8.2-bn takeover offer

Shares in Illumina Inc soared by 7 per cent yesterday, after Swiss newspaper L'Agefi reported that Swiss drugmaker Roche Holdings may have reached an agreement to buy the US gene-sequencing company for $8.2 billion.

The likely deal comes eight months after Roche ended its three months pursuit of Illumina, which holds a 60-per cent share in the next-generation sequencing market.

The paper said that the board of Illumina agreed on a transaction price of $66 per share, valuing the company between $8.1 billion and $8.2 billion.

In January, Basel, Switzerland-based Roche, the world's biggest maker of cancer drugs, had offered to pay  $44.50 a share or $5.7-billion and raised it in April to $51 a share or $6.7-billion. (See: Illumina rejects Roche's $6.7-bn bid)

Both the offers were rejected by the San Diego, California-based company on the grounds that the bids dramatically undervalues the company and did not adequately reflect its singular position in an industry poised for extraordinary growth.

Not only did the board of Illumina steadfastly reject Roche' offer as being too low, Institutional Shareholders Services (ISS), a major Illumina shareholder, too urged other shareholders to vote against Roche's proxy contest to expand Illumina's board and fill it with its own nominees.