The California biotech firm said in a statement that it is hoping to find a buyer to address its ongoing financial struggles.
The genetic testing company 23andMe — which allows users to spit in a tube and send away the sample for a detailed DNA analysis — is filing for bankruptcy.
The California biotech firm announced in a statement this week that it had entered the federal bankruptcy process with the goal of finding a buyer to address its ongoing money troubles. Co-founder Anne Wojcicki also has stepped down as CEO, and said in a post on X she hopes to purchase the company herself. The board rejected an offer she made earlier this month, according to a press release.
23andMe has faced financial hardship for years, struggling to overcome the fact that many people who went to the website for a one-time DNA test didn’t become repeat customers. In November, the company laid off more than 200 employees, or roughly 40% of its staff.
The bankruptcy announcement also comes less than two years after 23andMe suffered a massive data breach affecting 6.9 million customer accounts.
The possibility that the company, once valued at $6 billion after it went public in 2021, could be sold has raised concerns about what would happen to the sensitive information of its more than 15 million users.
In its bankruptcy announcement, 23andMe said the data privacy of its customers would be an „important consideration“ in any sale. But federal law does little to secure genetic information given over to a private company, two legal experts on data privacy said.
„Often, if there’s so much personal data that a group has, it’s maybe in a hospital setting or a research setting and can be governed by more meaningful safeguards“, said Suzanne Bernstein, counsel at the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center.
