23andMe CEO says she can ‘land this plane’ after the entire board resigns
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Anne Wojcicki, the CEO of the consumer genetic testing company 23andMe (ME+0.81%), is cautiously optimistic about the firm’s future, a month after its entire board resigned on the same day.
“I think we can navigate and land this plane,” Wojcicki told Fortune in her first on-the-record interview since the mass resignations, “but it is absolutely complicated.”
Wojcicki told the outlet she could not comment further on the board crisis or whether she’s seeing new directors.
On Sept. 17, all seven members of the board sent Wojcicki a letter, who also serves as the board’s chair, announcing their immediate resignations.
“While we continue to wholeheartedly support the company’s mission and believe deeply in the value of the personalized health and wellness offering that you have articulated, it is also clear that we differ on the strategic direction for the company going forward,” the members wrote in the letter.
The board had grown dissatisfied with the direction Wojcicki was taking the company. Despite already controlling 49.75% of the voting rights, Wojcicki wanted to increase her influence further by taking the company private.
Wojcicki co-founded 23andMe in 2006 and has served as its CEO since its inception. The company went public in 2021 through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), but its stock has since plummeted by 97%.
Wojcicki first announced her intentions to take the struggling company private in April and filed in August a non-binding transaction proposal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to the filing, Wojcicki offered to buy all outstanding shares of the company at $0.40 a share, an 11% premium of 23andMe’s closing stock price in April.
“Our experience with the short-term focus of the public markets has led me to believe that the company will be best equipped to execute against this mission as a private entity, allowing us to remove certain public company costs and distractions,” Wojcicki wrote in the proposal.
She added, that she hoped to complete the transaction “as promptly as possible” and would not support any alternative deals.
In August, before their resignations, a special committee of the board asked Wojcicki to withdraw her “stated intent to oppose any alternative transaction.” It said if it did not receive an improved offer from Wojcicki, the committee would pursue alternative deals including offers from third parties.
In their September resignation letter, the board stated that they had not received any “actionable proposal” from Wojcicki.
“That we have not seen any notable progress over the last 5 months leads us to believe no such proposal is forthcoming,” they wrote.