"Given the continued strength of our cash flow, we believe that this program is an effective mechanism to return value to our shareholders," said Jay Flatley, Illumina's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Under the program authorized by its Board of Directors, any shares repurchased will be done so under a 10b5-1 trading program. The purchases will be funded from existing cash balances.

A trading program under Rule 10b5-1 allows a company to purchase its shares at times when it otherwise might be prevented from doing so under insider trading laws or self-imposed trading blackout periods. A broker selected by Illumina will have the authority under the terms and limitations specified in the plan to repurchase shares on the Company's behalf in accordance with the terms of the plan.

The 10b5-1 share repurchase period will commence on August 25, 2009. The aggregate amount of shares purchased pursuant to the plan will not exceed $75 million (excluding commissions, taxes and other charges and expenses). There is no guarantee as to the exact number of shares that will be repurchased under the stock repurchase program and the Company may terminate the plan at any time.

About Illumina

Illumina (www.illumina.com) is a leading developer, manufacturer, and marketer of next-generation life-science tools and integrated systems for the large-scale analysis of genetic variation and biological function. Using our proprietary technologies, we provide a comprehensive line of products and services that currently serve the sequencing, DNA analysis, and gene expression markets, and we expect to enter the market for molecular diagnostics. Our customers include leading genomic research centers, pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, clinical research organizations, and biotechnology companies. Our tools provide researchers around the world with the performance, throughput, cost effectiveness, and flexibility necessary to perform the billions of genetic tests needed to extract valuable medical information from advances in genomics and proteomics. We believe this information will enable researchers to correlate genetic variation and biological function, which will enhance drug discovery and clinical research, allow diseases to be detected earlier, and permit better choices of drugs for individual patients.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: this release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in any forward-looking statements are Illumina's ability (i) to integrate effectively our recent acquisition of Solexa, Inc., (ii) to develop and commercialize further our BeadArray, VeraCode®, and Solexa® technologies and to deploy new sequencing, gene expression, and DNA analysis products and applications for our technology platforms, (iii) to manufacture robust microarrays and Oligator® oligonucleotides, (iv) to integrate and scale our VeraCode technology, together with other factors detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including our recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q or in information disclosed in public conference calls, the date and time of which are released beforehand. We disclaim any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements beyond the date of this release.

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