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Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

investors.23andme.com

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Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#41

Post by toomuchtodo »

javierluraschi wrote: post #24
toomuchtodo wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regrettable. I suppose the alternative path is to let them go bankrupt and to get bought out of bankruptcy. That should wipe out all equity holders. If you’re a potential bidder, get your financing or cash lined up.

She (the CEO) has a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the company and its shareholders. Intentionally driving a company into bankruptcy for personal gain is a massive breach of that duty and opens her up to all kinds of legal trouble. So I would think that's a very bad idea.

They're going bankrupt because they're almost out of cash [1]. The CEO is holding public investors hostage with the low ball take private offer LarsDu88 mentioned. The stock, NASDAQ: ME, currently trades at 29 cents/share [2] and will be delisted shortly [3]. Their failure to secure their customer DNA data with MFA cost them a $30M fine they must pay [4].

My comment you replied to was attempting to communicate that, because the CEO holds most of the control over the company, it is preferable to let it slip into bankruptcy (where equity and their control will be wiped out) vs continuing allowing them the control they have, which is not leading to a favorable outcome for the enterprise. This is potentially superior to recapitalizing the existing enterprise and continuing to allow the CEO to light capital on fire.

[1] https://investors.23andme.com/news-releases/news-release-det... (draw your attention to quarterly burn rate and cash on hand)

[2] https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ME/

[3] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-10/strugglin... |https://archive.today/yTo01

[4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41536494

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#42

Post by AlbertCory »

LarsDu88 wrote: post #30
nextos wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was the plan all the time to go B2B (drug development) and they just used B2C (selling SNP kits) to hoard samples? Even considering all FDA limitations, I cannot understand how bad their genetic risk scores are. They have talent, they have lots of customers and data. This is a position other companies, like deCODE, would have killed to be in.

If the board is resigning, and the company is selling DNA kits, running a telemedicine operation, selling pharmceuticals online AND developing cancer drugs at a 180 million dollar market cap... It's quite possible there was no plan at all...

I saw Ann when she gave a talk at Google (that was when she was still married to Sergey). They had spit cups we could use if we wanted our DNA sequenced. I didn't.

Their business plan was straight out of South Park:

1. Collect lots of DNA

2. ??????

3. Profit!!

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#44

Post by ShufflerL »

javierluraschi wrote: post #24
toomuchtodo wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regrettable. I suppose the alternative path is to let them go bankrupt and to get bought out of bankruptcy. That should wipe out all equity holders. If you’re a potential bidder, get your financing or cash lined up.

She (the CEO) has a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the company and its shareholders. Intentionally driving a company into bankruptcy for personal gain is a massive breach of that duty and opens her up to all kinds of legal trouble. So I would think that's a very bad idea.

reminds me of Elizabeth Holmes, of Theranos fame. I wonder what will happen...How big or hyped up is 23andme?

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#45

Post by breck »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #32
breck wrote: post #15

For the record, 23andme is one of the few companies where the CEO never once responded to one of my emails (2017, 2019, 2022, 2024). You can make a lot of money just by betting on companies where the CEO (or the CEO's office) takes listening to customers'(who are rooting for them!) emails seriously, and shorting those that do not.

Ok, please share more! Who responded and who didn’t?

Responds: Airbnb, Stripe, Amazon, Apple, USAA, Microsoft, OpenAI, AngelList, Mercury, Coinbase, YCombinator (up to 2022) and more.

Didn't: 23andme, VLTA, Reddit, YCombinator (post 2022)

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#46

Post by CSMastermind »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #20

“Nearly every baby born in the U.S. has blood drawn in the immediate hours after their birth, allowing the baby to be tested for a panel of potentially life-threatening inherited disorders. This is a vital public health program, enabling early treatment of newborns with genetic disorders; for them, it can be the difference between a healthy life and an early death. But recent news suggests that police are seeking acc…

My most radical political opinion is that we need a right to privacy enshrined in a constitutional amendment.

And it needs to be robust enough to prevent the government from subpoenaing data collected by private companies.

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#47

Post by AlbertCory »

zzleeper wrote: post #33
LarsDu88 wrote: post #2

Literally just one day after 23andMe presented positive phase 2 clinical results for two anti-cancer drugs: https://therapeutics.23andme.com/news-and-research/ The board of directors of 23andMe just resigned in protest. The CEO, Anne Wojcicki (who's sister Susan died of lung cancer last month, and was the former CEO of YouTube) had tried to low ball take the company private at only $0.40 a share -- a more than 96% dr…

So sad that Blackstone bought ancestry.. newspapers.com is a really nice tool for researchers (and most things that get touched by PE end up enshittified)

I suppose I should know this: who owns newspapers.com? What's the connection?

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#48

Post by HideousKojima »

mhsdef wrote: post #25
SoftTalker wrote: post #10

Zero chance I ever give my DNA to one of these companies.

Did your relative? I'm not a geneticist so I could be totally off the mark; but, to my understanding, the painful part is that is a big disclosure right there

My oldest brother did so I'm already screwed

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#49

Post by LarsDu88 »

llm_nerd wrote: post #22
hackernewds wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why are these companies worth so much, if not for sneakily monetizing and selling their user's most personal data?

The plan was always that DNA could be use for medical research, which is enormously valuable. And given that 23andme currently has a market cap 1/20th DJT (Trump Media & Technology Group Corp) -- a firm that makes less revenue than a variety store yet has huge losses -- I wouldn't really say it's "worth so much".

I thought DJT is just a huge foreign influence campaign to get financial leverage over the "future US president". Can't compare the two.
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