Illumina Buys Out Big Investors With $8B Acquisition Of Grail

Gene sequencing firm Illumina announced plans on Monday to buy cancer screening startup Grail in a cash-and-stock deal worth $8 billion.

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Grail (Nasdaq: GRAL) was founded in 2016 by San Diego-based Illumina as a separate company and had raised about $2 billion, with investors including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. The deal comes weeks after Grail filed to go public.

Illumina (Nasdaq: ILMN) is Grail’s largest shareholder, holding a 14.5 percent stake. Grail stockholders, including Illumina, will receive $3.5 billion in cash and $4.5 billion in shares of Illumina stock, the companies said on Monday.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias.