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Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

investors.23andme.com

191–200 of 372 posts

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#191

They also just settled a class-action lawsuit stemming from their data breach: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/23andme-to-pa...

I think data-breaches could carry the death penalty for companies. I just got a notification from some health services company that my and my toddlers data was accessed. Including medical history, diagnoses, payment details, SSN, birthday. Why was this not encrypted? Given the world today, this is negligent. The government should be able to disolve the company and give the money to the victims. If there was a willful…

> I think data-breaches could carry the death penalty for companies.

The ironic thing is: why pay for their data now when it's out there already?

Sounds like they played themselves

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#192
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The resignation implication is that the CEO is running the company to the ground. The comment further implies this is on purpose in order to buy the company cheaply.

I'm confused by this; isn't the board of directors who picks the CEO? Or are they locked in for some period of time and don't want to wait around?

The CEO owns 49% of the voting power so the board is pretty much toothless. Facing a direct conflict with her, loudly resigning is probably about the best they could do.

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#193
post #175

There is absolutely no reason for these companies to collect your PII whatsoever. You should go to nearest pharmacy and buy sterile swab, swab yourself and write long random number on it and send it. Once a month company publishes one giant zip with all the monthly result where you find your file by that random number you wrote.

Or just create an account with a username and password and get the results there, like every other company does.

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#195
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Closest competitor does a lot of heavy lifting in this situation. Ancestry is the overwhelming leader in the find long lost relative space/your "roots" space. Look at https://www.ancestry.com/ and https://www.23andme.com/ 23andme has basically given up on this part of the business. Their pitch is health. But that pitch is murky with no good hook to keep you hooked for a monthly subscription. So after they get the ini…

I’m on mobile and too lazy to check, but is ancestry.com related in any way to Jehovah’a Witnesses? I’m asking because at some point I was online searching for any info about the Russian Imperial census held at the end the 1890s and, to my surprise, the JW website had all the info in there (or at least almost all the info on the region I was interested in, Kherson). And then I found out that this sort of stuff is rig…

Not Jehova's witnesses but the founders are Mormon and the company operates out of Utah.

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if that is the case, isnt paying stockholders 20% over value a pretty good deal, and not a ripoff? It seems like there are contradictory facts being claimed: that the price to go private is a lowball, and that the current price is accurate.

As a sale, yes, but to take it private no. After taking the company private they could then manage the company properly and make all of the upside, completely screwing over the shareholders who they bought out. Honestly that's borderline fraud.

That would completely be fraud, but seems pretty far fetched.

They have been (miss)managing the company about the same for 18 years, so it would have to be one of the most epic cons of all time.

On the other hand, partial owners and management take companies private all the time. It is an extremely common occurrence. It and PE buyout are probably the two most common ways.

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#197
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Closest competitor does a lot of heavy lifting in this situation. Ancestry is the overwhelming leader in the find long lost relative space/your "roots" space. Look at https://www.ancestry.com/ and https://www.23andme.com/ 23andme has basically given up on this part of the business. Their pitch is health. But that pitch is murky with no good hook to keep you hooked for a monthly subscription. So after they get the ini…

> leader in the find long lost relative space/your "roots" space. Acknowledging Ancestry.com are well ahead of the market here, but I never got their appeal of finding some long-lost second cousins... basically strangers, and saying, "hey, isn't it fascinating that we share some arbitrary level of common genetic makeup". If some randomer reached out via email to me doing this big reveal I'd be "thanks, but into the s…

I don’t think anyone is actually trying to connect with distant cousins for social interaction; rather the shared DNA segments provide hard evidence to confirm distant ancestors. I got into genealogy a couple years ago after thumbing through some old family documents and I’ve been able to confirm 6th cousins (traced via our shared ancestors) using 23andMe data.

Now there are probably some who think genealogy is a silly pastime and maybe it is, but researching my family history helps me feel grounded and more connected to humanity so I derive a lot of benefit from it.

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if that is the case, isnt paying stockholders 20% over value a pretty good deal, and not a ripoff? It seems like there are contradictory facts being claimed: that the price to go private is a lowball, and that the current price is accurate.

If the one offering 20% over listed price is the one causing the listed price to be far more than 20% below what the company could be worth if they were running it properly, most people would consider that to be a ripoff.

That seems like conspiracy thinking. The stockholders own part of the company with current management, not some hypothetical alternative.

If they sell, they are selling a stake in the real company as it exists, not the alternate reality one.

Think of a more relatable example. . A rental house with crazy tenants sells for less than a vacant one.

If you buy or own a stake in a business that is controlled by poor managers, you are lucky to sell for a 20% premium.

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#199
post #110
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.

Anne's plan from the very beginning was to capitalize on the value of the human genome in drug development and medical testing. Frankly everything you need to know about the idea behind the company before its various pitfalls and pivots is here (2007): https://web.archive.org/web/20140312001152/http://www.wired.... (sorry, it takes a while to load but wired has killed most of their long-term links) IMHO she and Avey…

> it helped a number of children conceived via IVF (he had provided a sample for fertility testing many years before) identify and contact him

Wait, so a sample he submitted for fertility testing was used to impregnate a number of women? Without his knowledge?

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#200
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Closest competitor does a lot of heavy lifting in this situation. Ancestry is the overwhelming leader in the find long lost relative space/your "roots" space. Look at https://www.ancestry.com/ and https://www.23andme.com/ 23andme has basically given up on this part of the business. Their pitch is health. But that pitch is murky with no good hook to keep you hooked for a monthly subscription. So after they get the ini…

I’m on mobile and too lazy to check, but is ancestry.com related in any way to Jehovah’a Witnesses? I’m asking because at some point I was online searching for any info about the Russian Imperial census held at the end the 1890s and, to my surprise, the JW website had all the info in there (or at least almost all the info on the region I was interested in, Kherson). And then I found out that this sort of stuff is rig…

> at some point I was online searching for any info about the Russian Imperial census held at the end the 1890s

Any idea where I might find a list of Russian navy officers from then or the following decades?

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