23andMe lays off 40 per cent of its workforce-more than 200 workers-and axed its therapeutics division as the beleaguered genetic testing company moved to slash costs. On Monday 23andMe is going to its restructuring.
It’s “taking these difficult but necessary actions” as it focuses “on the long-term success of our core consumer business and research partnerships,” 23andMe Chief Executive and cofounder Anne Wojcicki said in a prepared statement.” The restructuring comes amid turmoil at California-based 23andMe, which has in the past year included a high-profile data breach, several rounds of previous layoffs and mounting losses that have sunk the company’s stock in recent years.
In September, all of 23andMe’s outside directors resigned from its board, the extremely rare result of extended negotiations with Wojcicki, who has been trying to take the company private. In a statement, the seven departing directors said they still hadn’t received an adequate transaction proposal from the CEO and cited a “clear” disagreement over the future of 23andMe.
After being on her own for over a month, 23andMe announced in late October that it had appointed three new independent directors to the board. Company doubled its losses last fiscal year
23andMe began trading publicly last year but has struggledto find a profitable business model, partly because most of its customers need only buy its saliva testing kits once. Inits most recent fiscal year, it netted a loss of $7 million, more than double the $2 million loss from the prior year.
23andMe posted another quarterly earnings loss, though less of a ding compared to previous quarters, the company released Tuesday. It reported a net loss of 59.1 million US dollars during the second quarter of fiscal year 2025 compared with a net loss of 75.3 million US dollars during the same year-ago period.
Meanwhile, 23andMe said the job cuts and other restructuring moves unveiled on Monday will trim operating expenses and save the company more than US$35 million annually.
Meanwhile, 23andMe ended the quarter with US$127 million in cash and cash equivalents, compared to US$216 million as of March 31, 2024.
