Days after proposing to settle an information breach lawsuit for $30 million, 18-year-old genetic testing firm 23andMe now faces one other public hurdle: Seven impartial administrators of its board resigned on Tuesday via a pointed letter addressed to CEO Anne Wojcicki, who’s now the one remaining member of the board.
The resigning administrators, amongst whom have been YouTube CEO Neal Mohan and Sequoia VC Roelof Botha, known as out Wojcicki for not submitting a “absolutely financed, absolutely diligenced, actionable proposal” to take the corporate non-public over the previous 5 months. They wrote that their strategic route for 23andMe was completely different from Wojcicki’s.
“Due to that distinction and due to your concentrated voting energy, we consider that it’s in one of the best pursuits of the Firm’s shareholders that we resign from the Board somewhat than have a protracted and distracting distinction of view with you as to the route of the Firm,” they said.
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Wojcicki, who co-founded the corporate in 2006, controls 49% of 23andMe votes. In July, she submitted a proposal to purchase all of the shares she did not already personal at $0.40 per share and take the corporate non-public. A particular committee created by the corporate rejected her proposal, stating that it wasn’t in one of the best pursuits of shareholders.
Anne Wojcicki. Credit score: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos
Wojcicki instructed staff in a memo on Tuesday that she was “shocked and dissatisfied” by the resignations and would instantly start discovering substitute administrators. She said that “taking 23andMe non-public would be the finest alternative for long-term success.”
23andMe, which was valued at $6 billion in 2021 shortly after going public, is now a penny inventory value 34 cents per share on the time of writing. The corporate has till November 4 to convey its inventory worth as much as no less than $1 per share or threat being delisted.
23andMe has confronted quite a lot of public setbacks, together with an information breach in October that impacted almost 7 million accounts and appeared to focus on folks with Chinese language or Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. Clients filed a category motion lawsuit in January and 23andMe proposed a $30 million settlement earlier this month.
23andMe’s core product is a $99 ancestry equipment that requires a buyer to submit their spit in change for genetic insights. A $199 equipment advertises well being predisposition studies. The corporate can also be growing medicine in-house and testing them.
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