Af­ter block­ing Grail ac­qui­si­tion, EU leaves Il­lu­mi­na with few good op­tions

Il­lu­mi­na on Tues­day laid out two sce­nar­ios for its $8 bil­lion Grail ac­qui­si­tion, both of which put it­self in a tough spot.

The San Diego-based com­pa­ny plans to ap­peal a Eu­ro­pean Com­mis­sion de­ci­sion to block the merg­er, with the bloc rea­son­ing Il­lu­mi­na could use its DNA se­quenc­ing dom­i­nance to throt­tle Grail com­peti­tors’ ac­cess to the tech­nol­o­gy. But if the lengthy ap­peal fails, Il­lu­mi­na is prepar­ing for an­oth­er op­tion: di­vest­ing Grail.

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