BREAKINGVIEWS-23andMe deal should never be cloned

Reuters
2024-09-20

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

By Robert Cyran

NEW YORK, Sept 20 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The genetic-test firm’s entire board, save founder Anne Wojcicki, resigned in frustration with her stalled takeover bid. The offer is perhaps the least-worst detail. The once $6 bln company should never have gone public and super-voting stock primed it for a governance implosion.

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CONTEXT NEWS

All seven independent directors on 23andMe’s board resigned on Sept. 17, leaving Anne Wojcicki, the company’s chief executive officer and co-founder, as the only remaining board member.

Wojcicki offered to take the company private in July, but that offer was rejected by a special committee formed by the board, because it said the 40 cents per share offer didn’t provide a premium to the stock’s trading price and was not fully financed. Super-voting stock gives Wojcicki 49.8% of the vote.

The directors said they had yet to receive a fully financed and acceptable offer, did not believe one was coming, and therefore were unwilling to consider further extensions. The directors that resigned are Roelof Botha, Patrick Chung, Sandra Hernández, Neal Mohan, Valerie Montgomery Rice, Richard Scheller, and Peter J. Taylor.

In a statement, Wojcicki said she continued to believe that taking the company private was the best path to success, and that 23andMe would immediately begin to identify new independent directors to the board.

(Editing by Lauren Silva Laughlin and Sharon Lam)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on robert.cyran@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: robert.cyran.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

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