Anne Wojcicki just won back her own company. The 23andMe founder beat out Big Pharma giant Regeneron in a bankruptcy auction that wrapped up Friday. Her bid? $305 million through a nonprofit she controls called TTAM Research Institute.
This whole mess started when 23andMe filed for bankruptcy in March. Pretty ironic, considering Wojcicki had been trying to take the company private for years before that happened. The board kept rejecting her offers.
Here’s where it gets messy. Regeneron actually won the first auction back in May with a $256 million bid. But TTAM cried foul. They claimed 23andMe shut down the auction too early. Said they never got a fair shot to bid higher.
The bankruptcy court apparently agreed. They held another round Friday morning. TTAM came in $50 million higher than Regeneron’s winning bid. Regeneron looked at the numbers. Declined to match. They’ll walk away with a $10 million consolation prize instead.
Money talks, and TTAM had serious backing. Court documents reveal they secured financing from a “Fortune 500 company with a current market cap of more than $400bn and $17bn of cash on hand.” That’s Apple-sized money, though they won’t say who exactly.
The deal isn’t done yet. Still needs court approval. Hearing’s set for next week.
Several states have been freaking out about customer genetic data changing hands. Makes sense – this is deeply personal information from millions of Americans. But with Wojcicki staying in control, those concerns might evaporate.
There’s baggage here though. A court-appointed privacy expert noted that Wojcicki was running things during a nasty 2023 data breach. Hit 7 million customer accounts. Lawsuits are still pending. The good news for her? Those liabilities stay with the bankruptcy estate.
23andMe was once Silicon Valley’s darling. Wojcicki – formerly married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin – took it public in 2021 through one of Richard Branson’s SPAC deals. The company briefly hit a $6 billion valuation.
That didn’t last. The genetics testing market proved limited. How many people really want to spit in a tube to learn about their ancestry? Turns out, not enough to sustain massive growth. Revenue kept falling as the company failed to expand beyond its core DNA analysis business.
Before bankruptcy, Wojcicki offered shareholders 40 cents per share to go private. They said no. Now the stock trades over-the-counter at $5.49. Investors are betting on a turnaround under her leadership.
It’s a remarkable comeback story. Wojcicki founded this company, watched it soar, then crash. Now she’s buying it back from bankruptcy court. Whether she can actually turn things around? That’s the $305 million question.
