Illumina, Roche deal

Roche plans to nominate up to 11 directors for election to the board of Illumina at the sequencing company's annual meeting this year as part of an unsolicited bid launched in January to acquire the biotech. The pharma also will propose increasing the size of Illumina's board to 11 from nine members. The terms of four of Illumina's directors are set to expire this year. Last year's annual meeting occurred on May 10. Delaware law requires that Illumina hold its next annual meeting within 13 months. A specific date has yet to be scheduled.

Roche's nominees are Bary Bailey, president of 4B Management LLC and an operating partner at private equity firm Cressey & Co.; Earl Collier Jr., executive chairman of Arsenal Medical (Watertown, Mass.) and CEO of 480 Biomedical Inc. (Watertown, Mass.); Dwight Crane, an independent consultant; David Dodd, co-founder of VaxyGen Holdings LLC and CEO of Rivers Edge BioVentures; Michael Griffith, CEO and a director of Laureate Biopharmaceutical Services Inc. (Princeton, N.J.); and Jay Hunt, president of consultancy The Development Group. ...