Stock Markets
Exclusive-Icahn drops Illumina board challenge threat, sources say
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn gives an interview on FOX Business Network’s Neil Cavuto show in New York February 11, 2014. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and David Carnevali
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Activist investor Carl Icahn has dropped a threat to mount a new challenge to Illumina (NASDAQ:)’s board, sparing the U.S. gene sequencing company from its second proxy contest in as many years, according to people familiar with the matter.
Icahn, who installed one of his nominees to Illumina’s board last year through a proxy contest, had said in December he wanted to oust more Illumina directors, blaming them for the company losing three-quarters of its market value because of mismanagement and its soured $7.1 billion acquisition of blood test maker Grail.
Icahn saw little value in a new proxy contest after Illumina took steps to comply with antitrust rulings to divest Grail, the sources added.
The 88-year-old billionaire investor is pressing on with a lawsuit he filed against Illumina board directors last year, accusing them of breaching their fiduciary duty by completing the acquisition of Grail in defiance of antitrust regulators.
The sources requested anonymity because Icahn’s decision to abandon a second proxy contest has not been announced. Icahn and Illumina declined to comment.
Icahn had been preparing for a second proxy contest against Illumina for months, getting in touch with potential board directors and seeking counsel from experts on whether Illumina shareholders would back him, the sources said.
Icahn got enough Illumina shareholder support to get one of three nominees he put forward elected as board directors last year. Illumina CEO Francis deSouza was subsequently replaced by former Agilent Technologies (NYSE:) executive Jacob Thaysen, and by December, the company announced had plans to divest Grail.
Illumina founded Grail and spun it off in 2016. Grail went on to raise funding from investors such as Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. Illumina was left with a 12% stake, and decided in 2021 to acquire Grail to enter the cancer early-detection market.
The deal was opposed by antitrust regulators over concerns Illumina would stop Grail’s rivals from accessing its technology to develop competing blood-based early cancer detection tests.
Illumina proceeded with the acquisition regardless, only to be slapped with a record 432 millions euro ($466 million) fine by the European Commision and be ordered to sell Grail.
Illumina has said that it will jettison Grail by divesting it or spinning it off as a separate publicly listed company. The deal has taken a heavy toll on Illumina, whose business is otherwise lucrative thanks to its ubiquitous DNA sequencing machines.
Grail’s greater-than-expected expenditures and delays in advancing its tests forced Illumina to writedowns that Icahn says have totaled $4.7 billion.
Credit ratings agency Fitch in December pegged Grail’s annual operating losses to about $600 million. These are due to Grail’s spending to advance its product pipeline and its bid to get its Galleri test, which can detect more than 50 types of cancer through blood samples, cleared by health regulators.
By Maggie Fick and Ahmed Aboulenein
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Members of Donald Trump’s presidential transition team are laying the groundwork for the United States to withdraw from the World Health Organization on the first day of his second term, according to a health law expert familiar with the discussions.
“I have it on good authority that he plans to withdraw, probably on Day One or very early in his administration,” said Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health at Georgetown University in Washington and director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health (NS:) Law.
The Financial Times was first to report on the plans, citing two experts. The second expert, former White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha, was not immediately available for comment.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The plan, which aligns with Trump’s longstanding criticism of the U.N. health agency, would mark a dramatic shift in U.S. global health policy and further isolate Washington from international efforts to battle pandemics.
Trump has nominated several critics of the organization to top public health positions, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic who is up for the post of secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees all major U.S. health agencies including the CDC and FDA.
Trump initiated the year-long withdrawal process from the WHO in 2020 but six months later his successor, President Joe Biden, reversed the decision.
Trump has argued that the agency failed to hold China accountable for the early spread of COVID-19. He has repeatedly called the WHO a puppet of Beijing and vowed to redirect U.S. contributions to domestic health initiatives.
A WHO spokesperson declined to directly comment but referred Reuters to comments by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press briefing on Dec. 10 in which he was asked whether he was concerned that the Trump administration would withdraw from the organization.
Tedros said at the time that the WHO needed to give the U.S. time and space for the transition. He also voiced confidence that states could finalize a pandemic agreement by May 2025.
Critics warn that a U.S. withdrawal could undermine global disease surveillance and emergency response systems.
“The U.S. would lose influence and clout in global health and China would fill the vacuum. I can’t imagine a world without a robust WHO. But U.S. withdrawal would severely weaken the agency,” Gostin said.
U.Today – MicroStrategy has made headlines again by purchasing 5,262 BTC for approximately $561 million at an average price of $106,662 per BTC. The company now holds a staggering 444,262 BTC, accumulated at a total cost of approximately $27.7 billion, with an average purchase price of $62,257 per BTC.
Despite impressive returns of 47.4% since the beginning of the quarter and 73.7% since the beginning of the year, skepticism about the company’s strategy is growing.
It is believed that to sustain its purchases, MicroStrategy raises capital through methods such as issuing convertible and corporate bonds, securing credit lines and selling shares.
This cycle appears to operate as follows: shares are sold to acquire the cryptocurrency, and the rising price per BTC increases asset value, enabling further loans, which are then reinvested in more purchases.
Some observers warn that a significant decline in Bitcoin’s price or MicroStrategy’s stock could trigger a cascade effect. A sharp fall in MSTR shares would weaken the collateral backing its loans, potentially leading to forced asset sales, including BTC.
This scenario could exert downward pressure on the broader cryptocurrency market, as the company holds 2.2% of the global Bitcoin supply now.
Thus, while some view Michael Saylor’s approach as a bold bid to cement the cryptocurrency’s role in the financial system, others see it as unsustainable. History offers a cautionary note: in 2000, MSTR shares surged to $333 before plummeting 99%, a collapse that took 24 years to recover from.
National homebuilder ranked No. 12 on inaugural list ranking companies based on trust
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Dec. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — With a longstanding reputation for trust, national homebuilder and land developer Taylor Morrison (NYSE:) (NYSE: ™HC) has been recognized by Forbes on their inaugural list of the Most Trusted Companies in America. The homebuilder ranked No. 12 out of 300 companies across all industries.
“There are few things more powerful than trust and it’s something we strive to earn amongst all company stakeholders, from our customers to our team members, our shareholders, and our local communities,” said Taylor Morrison Chairman and CEO Sheryl Palmer. “To be included on this esteemed list in its inaugural year is especially meaningful and these awards are important reminders of the relationships we’re building across all aspects of our business.”
Fueled by hundreds of millions of data points, the Most Trusted Companies in America list combines data on a wide range of factors across four categories: employee trust, customer trust, investor trust and media sentiment. The ranking was created in partnership with research companies HundredX, Signal AI and Glassdoor.
Taylor Morrison also earned the No. 67 spot on Forbes’ inaugural America’s Best Companies list. The ranking is Forbes’ most comprehensive company ranking to date and factored in ratings for financial performance, customer and employee satisfaction, cybersecurity, sustainability, companies’ remote work policies, media coverage and more. Forbes’ America’s Best Companies list assessed more than 60 metrics across 11 primary categories to identify which organizations excel across the board. Of the more than 2,000 U.S.-based publicly traded companies that were eligible, only 300 qualified for each list.
In addition to being named among the Most Trusted and Best Companies in America by Forbes, Taylor Morrison holds several additional accolades including being named on Newsweek’s America’s Most Responsible Companies and America’s Greenest Companies lists, U.S. News & World Report’s Best Companies to Work For list, the American Opportunity (SO:) Index, America’s Most Trusted ® Home Builder for nine years, Hearthstone’s 2021 BUILDER Humanitarian Award, and inclusion on the Fortune 500 list since 2021.
About Taylor Morrison
Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Taylor Morrison is one of the nation’s leading homebuilders and developers. We serve a wide array of consumers from coast to coast, including first-time, move-up, luxury and resort lifestyle homebuyers and renters under our family of brands”including Taylor Morrison, Esplanade and Yardly. From 2016-2024, Taylor Morrison has been recognized as America’s Most Trusted ® Builder by Lifestory Research. Our long-standing commitment to sustainable operations is highlighted in our annual Sustainability and Belonging Report.
For more information about Taylor Morrison, please visit www.taylormorrison.com.
CONTACT:
media@taylormorrison.com
Forex2 years agoForex Today: the dollar is gaining strength amid gloomy sentiment at the start of the Fed’s week
- Forex2 years ago
How is the Australian dollar doing today?
- Forex2 years ago
Unbiased review of Pocket Option broker
- Forex2 years ago
Dollar to pound sterling exchange rate today: Pound plummeted to its lowest since 1985
- Cryptocurrency2 years ago
What happened in the crypto market – current events today
- World2 years ago
Why are modern video games an art form?
- Commodities2 years ago
Copper continues to fall in price on expectations of lower demand in China
- Forex2 years ago
The dollar is down again against major world currencies
