23andMe has filed for chapter and CEO Anne Wojcicki has stepped down

DNA testing firm 23andMe has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, following a tumultuous few years that included important layoffs and a wide-ranging data breach. It plans to discover a purchaser and proceed operations all through the method, with the corporate's CEO, Anne Wojcicki, resigning to bid for the corporate independently. The Board of Administrators' Particular Committee beforehand rejected a proposal from Wojcicki.

"We count on the court-supervised course of will advance our efforts to deal with the operational and monetary challenges we face, together with additional value reductions and the decision of authorized and leasehold liabilities. We imagine within the worth of our folks and our property and hope that this course of permits our mission of serving to folks entry, perceive and profit from the human genome to dwell on for the good thing about clients and sufferers," mentioned Mark Jensen, chair and member of the Particular Committee, in a release.

Jensen added that the corporate is dedicated to safeguarding buyer information and that "being clear in regards to the administration of consumer information going ahead, and information privateness can be an essential consideration in any potential transaction."

There was a time when 23andMe was all the fad, with everybody you knew sending samples of their saliva. Nonetheless, issues have declined for the reason that firm went public. It was as soon as valued at $6 billion, however this month that quantity was lower than $50 million. The corporate additionally laid off over 200 employees late final yr.

However, the biggest hurdle got here in 2023 when hackers accessed the data of 6.9 million clients — the breach began in April of that yr, however 23andM3 noticed it five months later, in September. The corporate announced the leak that October. One yr later, 23andMe settled a class action lawsuit for $30 million, following claims comparable to that the corporate failed to inform plaintiffs that they had been particularly focused for being of Chinese language or Ashkenazi Jewish heritage.

This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/23andme-has-filed-for-bankruptcy-and-ceo-anne-wojcicki-has-stepped-down-144629683.html?src=rss

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