Roche has extended its cash tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of San Diego based Illumina Inc. at a price of $44.50 per share, on April 20, 2012. The tender offer was previously scheduled to expire on March 23.

Except for the extension of the tender offer expiration date, all other terms and conditions of the offer remain unchanged. As on March 23 approximately 144,208 shares, including 102 shares guaranteed to be delivered within the next three NASDAQ trading days, had been tendered and not withdrawn pursuant to the offer.

Greenhill & Co., LLC and Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. are acting as financial advisors to Roche and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP is acting as legal counsel.

On January 27, Roche commenced a tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Illumina for $44.50 per share in cash or an aggregate of approximately $5.7 billion on a fully diluted basis. This offer represents a substantial premium to Illumina’s unaffected market prices: a premium of 64 per cent over Illumina’s closing stock price on December 21, 2011 – the day before market rumours about a potential transaction between Roche and Illumina drove Illumina’s stock price significantly higher – and a 61 per cent premium over the one-month historical average and a 43 per cent premium over the three-month historical average of Illumina’s share price, both as of December 21, 2011.

Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Its the world’s largest biotech company with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management.