CEO Anne Wojcicki is attempting to repurchase it for just $75 million

For the second time in as many years, 23andMe CEO Ann Wojcicki is trying to buy back the DNA testing company she founded. But if the sale goes through, it's bound to be controversial. Wojcicki has teamed up with New Mountain Capital, a venture capital firm, to propose buying out the struggling company's shareholders at $2.53 per share, valuing the company at $74.7 million, a surprising price for a biotech firm that was worth $6 billion just four years ago. We believe the best course of action is for the company to go private, which will enable it to focus on executing long-term value creation initiatives. Wojcicki and New Mountain Capital wrote in their letter to the company's small board of independent directors in late February. Both the board and a majority of minority shareholders will need to approve the deal. 23andMe declined to comment for this story. A spokesperson for Ann Wojcicki declined to comment on the record. New Mountain Capital did not respond to a request for comment. Board experts say the bid will likely attract scrutiny from investors and raises red flags about what happens when a founder is given too much power. Wojcicki has 49% of the company's voting power and handpicked the company's current three directors after her former seven-person board famously resigned on the same day. That raises questions about the board's loyalties and whether shareholders would be getting a fair price. As Charles Elson, the founding director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance, puts it, this type of deal is a classic conflict-of-interest transaction. A fall from great heights, Wojcicki co-founded 23andMe in 2006 with Linda Avey, a genetics expert who had the idea for the company, and Paul Cusenza, an engineer and executive. By 2009, Wojcicki was running 23andMe without her co-founders and the company quickly became the best-recognized brand among DNA testers. Wojcicki emerged as a Silicon Valley who's who, joining her sister Susan Wojcicki, the former longtime head of YouTube, who died last year. Ann Wojcicki was also previously married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, with whom she shares two children. Initially, 23andMe focused on gaining customers who would pay a steep fee to have their spit analyzed for information about their ancestry and a few health signals. In time, it built what's now one of the world's largest DNA databases, including data for 15 million people, a majority of who agreed to have their information used for research. In 2015, it began leveraging that data. 23andMe moved into the staggeringly expensive business of drug development. It partnered with major pharmaceutical companies, but also set up its own in-house drug discovery unit. Then, in 2021, 23andMe bought telehealth company Lemonade for $400 million, with the intention of marrying genomic testing with clinical practice. Through the years, it also continued adding new health reports for DNA testing subscribers. But as 23andMe grew and gained prominence, then went public through a SPAC deal in 2021, the flaws in its business model began to show. By 2024, it was valued at $80 million, down 98% from its 2021 high. It was partly a victim of dramatic changes in the life sciences market and a major data breach that scarred its retail business, though others have pointed to Wojcicki's so-called founder's mode leadership style and her commitment to drug research to explain the company's steep fall. The retail side of the business wasn't enough to cover the costs of drug development, which can take years, cost hundreds of millions, and can't guarantee viable products. Wojcicki responded to the pressure by offering to buy the company herself in mid-2024, while declaring that she would not entertain outside bids for the firm. The 23andMe board rejected her bid to take the company private because her proposal, at $0.40 per share, didn't offer shareholders enough of a premium and didn't include detailed financing plans, according to a letter the board sent to Wojcicki. The first bid predates a 1-for-20 reverse stock split last fall. The post-stock split equivalent would be $8 per share. The board, which included noted figures in venture capital and tech like Neil Mohan, CEO of YouTube, and Roloff Botha, head of Sequoia Capital, resigned en masse in September of last year, after giving up on ever getting an improved bid from Wojcicki, as the directors explained in a public letter. It was a spectacle that briefly made Wojcicki the sole member of her board, while her company faced possible delisting from Nasdaq as its stock fell to under $1 a share. Wojcicki did not waver in her convictions, as described in her first proposal letter sent to the Special Committee of the Board of Directors and included in an SEC filing. I continue to be excited about our mission of improving the health of millions of people worldwide through the power of genetics," she said in that July missive. As CEO, I remain