5 Reasons Illumina, Inc. Should Fight Roche's Insulting Low-Ball Bid

Illumina is like the Apple of the genomics business. Tools made by the San Diego company (NASDAQ: ILMN) are revered by genomics researchers around the world just like millions of consumers love their iPhones and iPads. And Illumina holds its dominant position at an enviable moment in history, as we’re heading into a scientific golden age when human genomes will be sequenced for $1,000 or less. Yet here we are, after more than a month of silly posturing, and Switzerland-based pharma giant Roche is still behaving as if Illumina shareholders are fools who will act on short-term greedy impulse and sell their company for less than it’s worth. The stance is insulting and wrong. If this low-ball takeover deal somehow gets done, it would be bad for Illumina shareholders, bad for the genetic tools industry, bad for science, bad for the San Diego innovation community, and bad for the personalized medicine movement.

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