Anna Wojcicki, the CEO of DNA testing app 23andMe that was sold for $6billion, is trying to buy the company back for just $75million.
The troubled company was worth billions six years ago but now, for the second time in two years, Wojcicki has proposed buying out the company’s shareholders at $2.53 per share, valuing it at $74.7million.
The CEO has joined forces with venture capital firm New Mountain Capital in the bid to take the company private.
“We believe the best course of action is for the company to go private, which will enable it to focus on executing long-term value creation initiatives,” Wojcicki and New Mountain Capital wrote in the letter to the company’s board of independent directors at the end of February, Fortune reports.
The deal requires approval from the board and the majority of minority shareholders and is likely to raise red flags for investors, the outlet reported.
Wojcicki holds 49 percent of the company’s voting power. She also selected the company’s three directors after all seven of her independent directors resigned on the same day in September.
Charles Elson, the founding director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance, told Fortune that this kind of deal is “a classic conflict of interest transaction.”
23andMe declined to comment when contacted by The Independent.
In November 2024, the company laid off 40 percent of its workforce as the struggling genetic testing company attempted to slash costs.
In a statement at the time, Wojcicki said the company was “taking these difficult but necessary actions” as it focuses on “the long-term success of our core consumer business and research partnerships.”
The restructuring arrived during a period of turmoil at California-based company, which also suffered a high-profile data breach, several rounds of previous layoffs and piling losses that plunged the company’s stock over recent years.
23andMe went public in 2021 and has struggled to find a profitable business model since — particularly with most buyers of its saliva-based testing kits only needing to purchase once.
The company reported a net loss of $667million for its last fiscal year, more than double the loss of $312million for the year prior.
