Dear Illumina Employees,
Today Roche announced that we made an offer to acquire Illumina in a transaction that we believe will position both of our companies for greater long-term success. Here www.transactioninfo.com/Roche is the press release we issued this morning, which provides additional details on our offer.
Illumina’s portfolio includes innovative and market leading tools for DNA and RNA analysis that will contribute to more rapid advances in disease research, drug development, and the development of molecular tests in the clinic. We believe that Illumina will benefit from becoming part of our larger, more global organization. The combined company will be able to provide researchers in many different fields a total solution for their needs. Together, Roche and Illumina’s capabilities and global reach will accelerate the transition of Sequencing into clinical and routine diagnostics. DNA sequencing is expected to help to discover complex biomarkers that could become companion diagnostics and be paired with specific treatments in the long-term. For this and many other reasons, it was clear to us that combining our businesses made sense from both a strategic and financial perspective.
This transaction is not driven by cost synergies, but by the strategic value of Illumina’s business and its significant growth potential as part of Roche. We plan to continue the Illumina legacy within our Diagnostics Division maintaining the Illumina brand. We also intend to combine our existing Applied Science business with Illumina and move the business area’s headquarters to San Diego, California.
We are excited at the prospects of combining our two companies to better translate the latest scientific findings into new tailored therapies that benefit patients, physicians and other key partners in healthcare. We hope to work with Illumina management and shareholders to achieve our goals.
For more information on our offer, please visit www.transactioninfo.com/Roche.
Best regards,
/s/ Severin Schwan
Severin Schwan, CEO of Roche Group
/s/ Daniel O’Day
Daniel O’Day, COO, Roche Diagnostics Division
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