Latest news with #AnneWojcicki
Bloomberg
5 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
23andMe Sets New Auction With $305 Million New Bid From Ex-CEO
Bankrupt genetic analysis company 23andMe will hold a second auction for its cache of DNA data with an opening bid of $305 million from group lead by the company's former chief executive officer, Anne Wojcicki. The new offer is nearly $50 million more than the last bid from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, which had been declared the winner of the first auction last month, only to have the outcome challenged in court by Wojcicki.
Reuters
8 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
23andMe seeks new bids after $305 million offer from its co-founder
NEW YORK, June 4 (Reuters) - Bankrupt genetic testing company 23andMe ( opens new tab told a U.S. bankruptcy judge on Wednesday that it wants to re-open bidding on its assets, including customers' genetic data, after receiving a $305 million offer from its co-founder Anne Wojcicki. 23andMe had previously selected a $256 million bid from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN.O), opens new tab as the lead offer after a bankruptcy auction concluded in May. But it received a later bid from TTAM Research Institute, a new nonprofit founded by Wojcicki, and asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Brian Walsh in St. Louis, Missouri, to be allowed to re-engage with potential buyers after determining that TTAM had sufficient financing to proceed with the higher offer. Regeneron is willing to make a new bid for 23andMe's assets, but wants a $10 million breakup fee if Wojcicki's bid is ultimately accepted, its attorney Emil Kleinhaus told the judge. Kleinhaus said Regeneron still wants to buy 23andMe, but believes that it was unfair for the genetic testing company to seek a "do-over" after its earlier auction. "The auction was over, the rules were clear," Kleinhaus said. South San Francisco, California-based 23andMe filed for bankruptcy in March, seeking to sell its business at auction following a decline in consumer demand and a 2023 data breach that exposed sensitive genetic and personal information of millions of customers. The bankruptcy sale will include more than 15 million customer DNA profiles, collected via 23andMe's popular direct-to-consumer saliva-testing kits. The data breach and subsequent bankruptcy filing have drawn scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers concerned that the company's genetic data on millions of customers could be sold to unscrupulous buyers. 23andMe had named TTAM as the backup bidder after its earlier auction, valuing its offer at $146 million.
Bloomberg
9 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
23andMe Judge Questions Limits for New Auction for Bankrupt Firm
The judge overseeing the bankruptcy of 23andMe questioned the limits proposed for a second auction that is designed to push bids higher than a current $256 million offer from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals for the genetic-testing firm. US Bankruptcy Judge Brian Walsh asked lawyers for Regeneron and 23andMe to justify the limits they're supporting, but which have been criticized by the only other bidder, a California-based research institute backed by former 23andMe Chief Executive Officer Anne Wojcicki.
Epoch Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Epoch Times
23AndMe Founder Aims to Restart Auction With Major Corporate Backing
The founder of 23andMe, Anne Wojcicki, has asked a U.S. judge to reopen an auction for the genetic testing company, saying she has the support of a Fortune 500 company with a current market capitalization of more than $400 billion. Wojcicki did not name the Fortune 500 company in court filings.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion - 23andMe sold out and sold your genetic info, no consent necessary
Regeneron's $256 million acquisition of 23andMe, announced last month, isn't just a salvage deal — it's a genomic land grab. A pharmaceutical titan now owns the intimate biological blueprints of 15 million people. There were no new terms and there was no consent. Just signatures, court approval and silence. 23andMe didn't sell a product. It sold trust. It marketed curiosity, promised empowerment, and built a goldmine from spit tubes and ancestry pie charts. But trust isn't an asset you can auction off. DNA isn't a SKU. It's not a Netflix password you can reset or a Visa number you can cancel. It's you. It hints at your health risks and reproductive vulnerabilities. It points to your relatives. And now, it is theirs — tucked inside a server farm, commodified and indexed for future monetization. This isn't about accelerating drug development. That's a public relations veneer. This is about data ownership in a world where data is power. Regeneron isn't just buying a failing company — it's buying leverage over future patients, pricing models and access to treatments they will now develop with your DNA then sell back to you at a markup. And this isn't a hypothetical threat. 23andMe already showed how fragile the illusion of privacy really is. In 2023, it suffered a catastrophic breach, with 7 million records exposed, such that customers' sensitive genetic data data can never be private again. The stock cratered. Public confidence imploded. Anne Wojcicki stepped down as CEO. And behind closed doors, bankruptcy proceedings turned your biometric legacy into an asset class. One minute you were unlocking your heritage. The next, you were a data point in someone else's ledger. The courts greenlit the Regeneron deal, but no one asked the public or the customers. Once it's out, it's out. We have entered an era where biometric identity is currency. Regeneron just cornered a market without a single vote cast. Worse still, the mainstream press frames this as innovation. They celebrate 'research acceleration' and 'precision medicine' while ignoring the darker implications: insurance discrimination, reproductive profiling and quiet government access. Because yes, governments want this data too. And no, 'anonymized' DNA isn't really anonymous. All it takes is a surname and a genealogy site, and your entire bloodline can be triangulated. What happens when that data is sold, re-sold and folded into AI models trained to predict behavior, disease or 'risk factors'? You don't just lose your privacy. You lose your autonomy. We've allowed data capitalism to seep into our phones, our homes, our habits. But this is different. This is about ownership of the human body at scale and pharma giants building the next generation of treatments using genetic profiles you didn't consent to share with them. This is about a world where health becomes a luxury, because the blueprint for your care is someone else's intellectual property. And let's not pretend this is the end of the road. What happens when Regeneron partners with AI companies to model disease outcomes based on your code? What happens when the genomic data starts syncing with medical records, consumer habits, even location data? You'll be reduced to a profile. A price point. A risk factor. There's no longer a firewall between your body and their algorithm. We've been trained to treat data breaches like weather events. Inconvenient, yes, but not catastrophic. This isn't that. This is systemic. Regeneron's acquisition marks the end of an era in which data was collected under the illusion of control. From now on, it's inherited. It's monetized. It's weaponized. And no one asked your permission. John Mac Ghlionn is a writer and researcher who explores culture, society and the impact of technology on daily life. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
