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Days after 18-year-old genetic testing company 23andMe proposed a $30 million settlement in a data theft lawsuit, it now faces another public hurdle: Seven independent board members resigned Tuesday in a forceful letter to CEO Anne Wojcicki, who is now the only remaining board member.
The resigning directors, including YouTube CEO Neal Mohan and Sequoia venture Roelof Botha, accused Wojcicki of failing to present a “fully funded, carefully considered and actionable proposal” to take the company private in the past five months. They wrote that their strategic direction for 23andMe was different from Wojcicki's.
“Based on these differences of opinion and your combined voting power, we believe it is in the best interest of the Company's shareholders for us to resign from the Board rather than engage in protracted and disruptive disagreements with you about the direction of the Company,” they said.
Related: 23andMe's DNA technology helps family find kidnapped daughter after 51 years
Wojcicki, who co-founded the company in 2006, controls 49 percent of 23andMe's voting rights. In July, she submitted an offer to buy all the shares she did not already own at $0.40 per share and take the company private. A special committee appointed by the company rejected her offer, saying it was not in the best interests of shareholders.
Anne Wojcicki. Image credit: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Wojcicki told employees in a memo on Tuesday that she was “surprised and disappointed” by the resignations and would immediately begin searching for replacement directors, saying that “privatizing 23andMe is the best chance for long-term success.”
23andMe, which was valued at $6 billion shortly after its 2021 IPO, is a penny stock worth 34 cents per share at the time of this writing. The company has until November 4 to increase its stock price to at least $1 per share or risk being delisted.
23andMe has suffered a series of public setbacks, including a data breach in October that affected nearly 7 million accounts and appeared to target people of Chinese or Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Customers filed a class-action lawsuit in January, and 23andMe proposed a $30 million settlement earlier this month.
23andMe's core product is a $99 ancestry test kit that requires customers to provide saliva in exchange for genetic information. A $199 kit touts reports on health predispositions. The company also develops and tests its own drugs.
Related: 23andMe hackers sell stolen user data, including DNA profiles of “celebrities,” on the dark web
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