Live data from Hacker News

23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

reuters.com

381–390 of 426 posts

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm claiming this based on fundamental analysis of Tesla's sales/net profits/ROIIC and other metrics, which I take from their 13F fillings (AKA quarterly earning reports) compared to other car manufacturers. Some stocks are overpriced, and others are undervalued. The inclusion in the S&P500 alone is just 1 of the factors. In my opinion, Apple and NVIDIA are significantly undervalued based on their fundamentals, even…

I understand, and I’m claiming there is no one logical or fundamental way to derive a price. It could be logical to ascribe some value to a business’s leader having access to a US president known to be “open for business”? And we know a big tax bill is likely to be passed by year’s end. Perhaps that will lead to good fortunes for Tesla shareholders. Or maybe not.

You can derive the "true price" with a certain probability. Of course, unexpected things can happen, like Musk being assassinated, but the stock market is not completely unpredictable.

And the thing is, I don't have to be right about Tesla because I'm not making a single bet on that company. I'm making hundreds of bets using my methodology, and it's enough that I'm right 50-something% of the time (or even less than 50%, if we're talking Options trading).

That's what the whole stock market game is about. Hence, some investment companies, like Berkshire Hathaway, consistently make more than others over the long term.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#383
post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once 23andMe gets sold, all of that data belongs to whoever owns it and they can sell it to whoever they want. Perhaps to the government where they can do a warrantless search to find a relative of someone who may have been at a crime scene. Or to other governments. Or to insurance companies who want to play deny, defend and depose. I get that a lot of genetic information isn't predictive, but not all of it is so que…

> Once 23andMe gets sold, all of that data belongs to whoever owns it and they can sell it to whoever they want. Why would a company being sold mean that the data can be used for a purpose it previously couldn't?

The data is an asset. The limitations are contractual. The contract is voided by the bankruptcy.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, eventually, but it may be a while.

DNA sequencing costs for a full human genome have outpaced Moore's law. I wouldn't bet on it.

Sequencing costs dropped dramatically in a window that started when sequencing was done highly inefficiently. That gave folks the false impression that DNA sequencing would continue to halve in price every ~X years.

The NIH occasionally updates this chart (note: Y axis is log scale)

https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/DNA-Sequen...

You can see there was a dramatic reduction in costs from 2008 to 2015, as several vendors released several substantial technology improvements, and a slow improvement from 2015 to now, but it's roughly flatlined, and there isn't much investment in developing new technologies now.

To the surprise of many, having enormous amounts of genomic data hasn't been the clear-cut improvement to human health, although there are some exceptions (especially cancer identification and personalized treatment). If we truly wanted to, we could spend capital and build out the sequencing, compute, and storage infrastructure to sequence every person on the planet at least once at 50X coverage, and store the data in perpetuity.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean if it was trading at $8/share isn't the market rate $8/share?

It takes some time to complete the process, so the price is usually based on the likely future value. For companies increasing in value, the offer is usually higher than the current price, and for campanies decreasing in value, it's usually lower. Also, corrections aren't instant, so if the change of value was for something that had already happened, not something currently happening, the offer will reflect the expec…

[dead]

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#386
post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

23andme doesn’t check your identity at all, so you could just put in someone else’s name and submit your own saliva, and then.. go on a crime spree?

Whose credit card details are being used in this scenario?

A gift card from the gas station? Long ago we bought gifts for parents/grandparents and all they had to do was redeem a code.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only for companies who are profitable or might be profitable in the future. If the company has no chance at future profit, it becomes a simple share of assets. There are plenty of companies with assets only and no revenue or employees.

There are tons of examples of unprofitable companies, with no visible prospect of ever becoming profitable, trading at increasingly-higher values. Every tech bubble has their share of these.

yeah but 23andme was already falling when she wanted to buy the shares. It was overvalued and people already lost trust at the site.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#388
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shares are only worth what somebody wants to pay for them. Selling a ton of shares also often devalues them. Since the company was losing money, it was clear that the shares would drop.

Bloomberg's Matt Levine on the 23andMe situation: https://archive.is/zXqnB

Yeah but he mostly analyzes his he relationship between the board and the ceo. Of course 8 usd was not so good at the time, but the stock was falling rapidly and everybody shorted the shit out of the company, even if the ceo would’ve sold its shares under no circumstances would they have gotten over 10 usd besides that the stock was higher

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#389
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why was this downvoted? Your close family also shares your DNA, to 100%! Suppose your parents both test.. Your DNA is not something that you can 100% keep from others.

I think because it was unnecessarily conspiratorial. I can’t just sequence DNA can you? Do you think government agencies are collecting your tissues?

Sure, people can sequence DNA in their garage if they want. You need to know how to do it and how to not mess up all the details if you want to get reliable data.

As for government collecting samples from the environment, they (researchers funded by the government) already do that- it was used in COVID and many other places.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#390
post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not as worried if this data gets out or not. I think there are negative externalities if the data is sold to insurance firms — who can use the genomic information in litigation and policy rejections — or if the data is sold to some sort of powerful, pro-eugenics political organization. The insurance externalities likely can be mitigated with minimal legislation (protecting consumers in a similar manner to how we…

Look at the current political situation in the US. Do you think there's a lot of legislation protecting consumers from insurance firms any time soon?

I agree with this point to some extent, but insurance before protections for preexisting conditions used acne as a reason to reject cancer treatment claims: obviously fraudulent behavior. If insurance is deregulated and any regulations aren’t going to be enforced regardless — a path we are going down — insurance firms will weasel out of claims with or without this genomic data
Post reply on HN