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23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

reuters.com

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Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#411

Post by blerb795 »

EGreg wrote: post #171
cloudbonsai wrote: post #48

23andMe has been in a deadlock for a while. - The CEO is effectively the control owner of the company, having 49% of the voting right. She has been trying to take the company private for some time. - Last August, she proposed to buy all the outstanding shares at $8 per share. The board rejected. She installed a new board, and submitted her proposal again at $2.53 per share. The board rejected. She tried it a third ti…

Wait, if they declare bankruptcy can’t they be bought at a fire sale by this CEO’s friends finally?

No need for the friends to be involved -- she resigned prior the the bankruptcy filing so she can participate in the bidding process personally

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#412

Post by frankish »

marsten wrote: post #405
Spacecosmonaut wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a genetic engineer at a large pharma company. Genetic engineering of human model systems is my specialty. If I were a malicious actor, I could not do anything useful with the genome of any one person. Most peoples genomes are boring and at best sway the predisposition for disease by a modest degree. Exposing infidelity is honestly the best I can come up with.

My shocking 23andMe story: I reached out to a guy on 23andMe that was a DNA relative (2nd cousin) and said hi. Curious how we were related, I gave him some family names going several generations back, and asked if any of them rang a bell in his family history. He responded quickly and said no, they did not. Then a few weeks later I get another response. He said that one of the names had faintly rung a bell, and when…

Personally, I'd prefer to find out the truth in these cases.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#413

Post by aaronbrethorst »

MrMcCall wrote: post #192
jmount wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not how billionaires work.

Precisely. That's what we would do if we were billionaires. And that's precisely why we're not billionaires. I'm happy with my choices, though. They're merely confident and callous, but happiness will ever elude them.

Fair point. I was a billionaire until I bought once-promising institutions and shut them down.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#414

Post by Quekid5 »

muti wrote: post #103
Quekid5 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still have to backup those keys somewhere... and if you don't do it the same way as for the data then your backups are effectively worthless.

Much less data to back up so it can be stored in a way that is replicated for redundancy but still mutable. Separating the key and data is what allows for sending data to tape backup etc

If your (backup-via-redundancy) keys are mutable, you do not have a backup. What happens in the case of a ransomware attack, for example?

You've also added (possibly substantial) latency to every single operation that operates on user data.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#415

Post by anticensor »

HWR_14 wrote: post #383
InsomniacL wrote: post #316

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. 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.

Doesn't DNA data have additional statutory limitations on top of that?

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#416

Post by HWR_14 »

anticensor wrote: post #415
HWR_14 wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Doesn't DNA data have additional statutory limitations on top of that?

It has statutory limitations, subject to change, in how it can be used to discriminate against you. But those are tightly defined. It couldn't be used to deny you employment or health insurance, but could be used to deny you housing or life insurance.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#417

Post by muti »

Quekid5 wrote: post #414
muti wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much less data to back up so it can be stored in a way that is replicated for redundancy but still mutable. Separating the key and data is what allows for sending data to tape backup etc

If your (backup-via-redundancy) keys are mutable, you do not have a backup . What happens in the case of a ransomware attack, for example? You've also added (possibly substantial) latency to every single operation that operates on user data.

The specifics of how the keys are backed against different failure modes/attacks is orthogonal to the splitting of data/key.

Yes you would need to carefully design the system that allows deletion of keys while minimizing chances of data loss, but it can be done, and it's going to be cheaper and less complex to do so on a tiny subset of the data.

Latency considerations are also down to design, it's not a given that there will be significant overhead imposed.

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#418

Post by hnfong »

lazide wrote: post #262
addicted wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is still gonna be significantly worse than the $8/share offered. If the value of assets after paying off debtors is > $8/share, then that’s the easiest arbitrage opportunity considering it’s currently trading at $1.80. Just buy the whole thing for $3/share (an irrefutable premium of 67%), shut down operations entirely, pay off the creditors, and pocket the net assets of > $8/share and more than double your mone…

For this reason I’ve never heard of a stock which is selling at less than assets minus debts for very long. It’s an easy hostile takeover + fire sale situation. So I’m doubting that is what is really happening here?

FWIW, it's very common for stocks listed in the Hong Kong stock exchange to have its share price below assets minus debts..

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#419

Post by OfficeChad »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #380
Symmetry wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a future totalitarian government wants to save money on medical treatments then they can just euthanize anyone who gets cancer rather than euthanizing anyone whose genes say that they have a 50%+ greater risk than average of getting cancer. Or collect genetic samples themselves and use that to cull the population rather than just do it for people who were 23andMe customers.

or revert our diets to 1920 - no need to kill anyone :) (but I get your point and I agree)

[dead]

Re: 23andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself

#420

Post by lazide »

hnfong wrote: post #418
lazide wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For this reason I’ve never heard of a stock which is selling at less than assets minus debts for very long. It’s an easy hostile takeover + fire sale situation. So I’m doubting that is what is really happening here?

FWIW, it's very common for stocks listed in the Hong Kong stock exchange to have its share price below assets minus debts..

Weird - any idea why?
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