Carl Icahn blasted Illumina for nearly doubling its CEO’s pay last year despite
a dramatic drop in the biotech company’s market value since closing a
controversial deal.
“I’d find it comical, if it wasn’t so reprehensible that ILMN’s share price is down
63% due to CEO Francis deSouza making such an absurd and questionable
purchase,” Icahn said in a statement to CNBC.
“And what is really funny is the idea that it is hard to find good CEOs in this
area,” the activist investor added. “I guess it would be hard to find someone
who could lose $50 billion of shareholder value in a matter of months yet still
get paid 87% more for a grand total of $26.8 million in 2022.”
Illumina did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
DeSouza stepped in as CEO in 2016 after serving as the DNA sequencing
company’s president for almost three years. He was awarded nearly $26.8
million in total pay last year, nearly double the $14.3 million he received in
2021, according to a preliminary proxy statement Illumina filed Thursday.
Part of deSouza’s pay bump is a special grant of stock options worth $12.5
million, which Illumina called a “meaningful retention incentive in a highly
competitive talent environment.”
DeSouza’s pay increase follows a rocky 18 months for San Diego-based
Illumina. The company’s market value has fallen to roughly $35 billion from
about $75 billion in August 2021, the month it closed its acquisition of cancer
test developer Grail.