23andMe on Sunday filed for chapter within the U.S. after scuffling with the fallout of a knowledge breach and weak demand for its ancestry testing kits that featured in Oprah Winfrey’s annual listing of favorite issues simply eight years in the past.
The biotech unicorn has seen a pointy fall in its market worth since then. On Monday, its shares fell 46 per cent to 96 cents after co-founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki, who made a number of failed takeover bids, additionally resigned.
- Are you fearful about your 23andMe information? We wish to hear from you. Ship an e-mail to ask@cbc.ca
Wojcicki shall be changed by chief monetary officer Joe Selsavage on an interim foundation.
Based in 2006, 23andMe was the primary firm to supply autosomal testing by getting customers to immediately submit saliva samples, which might be analyzed to supply charts of their background and lineage.
In 2021, billionaire Richard Branson’s SPAC (special-purpose acquisition firm) took 23andMe public at a $3.5 billion US valuation. AncestryDNA, which gives related assessments, was additionally purchased by Blackstone Group that very same 12 months, regardless of slowing gross sales for each the genetic testing corporations.
A five-month-long information breach in 2023, which uncovered private information of almost seven million prospects, dealt a significant blow to 23andMe’s status. Late final 12 months, it laid off 200 workers and stopped growth of all therapies.
It additionally agreed to a $30-million US settlement in a lawsuit associated to the breach.
Wojcicki has been pushing for a buyout since final April however has been rebuffed by 23andMe’s board. She reportedly used her contacts together with ex-husband and Google co-founder Sergey Brin to assist drive preliminary investments. In September, all of 23andMe’s impartial administrators resigned from the board amid Wojcicki’s makes an attempt to take the corporate non-public. Three new impartial administrators had been appointed in October.
She intends to make one other bid, Wojcicki mentioned in a submit on X on Monday, with out giving particulars. Her final supply of 41 cents per share valued 23andMe at about $11 million US, under its present worth of $50 million US, and a far cry from its $6 billion US peak in 2021.
23andMe secured a financing dedication of about $35 million US on Sunday and can proceed to function in the course of the sale course of. It didn’t say if it had different buyout gives or curiosity.
It listed belongings and estimated liabilities between $100 million US and $500 million US.
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