Image used for representational purposes
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Genetic testing firm 23andMe said on Sunday it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. to help the $50 million company sell itself and that CEO Anne Wojcicki had resigned after multiple failed takeover bids.

23andMe, whose saliva-based test kits help customers learn about their ancestry, had cut about 40%, or 200 employees, of its workforce and stopped development of all its therapies as part of a restructuring program announced in November.

Wojcicki, to be replaced by CFO Joe Selsavage on an interim basis, has been pushing for a buyout since April last year but 23andMe’s board has rejected all offers.

The latest offer was for $0.41 per share earlier this month, an 84% cut to a $2.53-per-share offer the previous month since her partner in that bid, private equity firm New Mountain, had walked away after the board rejected the proposal.

The latest offer valued 23andMe at about $11 million, below its current value of $50 million, per LSEG data, and a far cry from the $3.5 billion market capitalisation when it went public in 2021.

“After a thorough evaluation of strategic alternatives, we have determined that a court-supervised sale process is the best path forward to maximize the value of the business,” Chair Mark Jensen said in a statement.

23andMe said it has secured a debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing commitment for about $35 million and expects to continue operating during the sale process. It did not say if it had any other buyout interest or offers.

It listed both assets and estimated liabilities in a range of $100 million to $500 million in the court filing.

A month before its restructuring program, 23andMe agreed to pay $30 million and give three years of security monitoring to settle a lawsuit accusing it of failing to protect the privacy of 6.9 million customers whose personal information was exposed in a data breach in 2023.