activist investor carl icahn is gearing up for a proxy fight at biotechnology company illumina the shares were getting a small bounce but illumina shareholders might be wary of further complicating the saga around the company’s stalled effort to take over cancerscreening specialist grail icahn plans to nominate three people to illumina ticker ilmn board saying they could help resolve the company’s attempted takeover of grail according to the wall street journal citing a letter being sent by icahn to the company’s shareholders