23andMe's independent board directors resign

Dive Brief: 23andMe’s independent board directors resigned on Tuesday amid uncertainty about the DNA testing company’s future. In a letter to CEO Anne Wojcicki, the seven board members said they had not received a revised offer for the company that was in the best interests of non-affiliated shareholders — and they did not expect one to come. “The Special Committee is therefore unwilling to consider further extensions, and the Board agrees with the Special Committee’s determination,” the letter stated. The directors also said that differences regarding the company’s direction led to their resignations. Wojcicki called the resignations surprising and disappointing in a memo to employees, according to a CNBC report. Dive Insight:

In April, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing revealed that Wojcicki planned to take the company private. 23andMe’s stock price had fallen below $1 per share at the time, down from its $10 initial public offering price.

Wojcicki made an official offer a few months later to buy the company for 40 cents per share. However, a special committee of the board quickly rejected the proposal as insufficient.

In the resignation letter, the independent board directors cited a difference of opinion with Wojcicki about the company’s direction as a reason they were stepping down.

“Because of that difference and because of your concentrated voting power, we believe that it is in the best interests of the Company’s shareholders that we resign from the Board rather than have a protracted and distracting difference of view with you as to the direction of the Company,” they wrote.

In Wojcicki’s memo to employees, obtained by CNBC, the CEO restated that taking 23andMe private was the correct move for its future, adding that the company would immediately look for new independent directors to join the board.

23andMe’s stock price was about 34 cents when the market closed on Wednesday, and the company had a market cap of $172.4 million. 23andMe was valued at $3.5 billion when it went public in 2021 through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company.