Anne Wojcicki buys back 23andMe in $305M deal, outbids Regeneron

Less than three months after Regeneron said it would acquire 23andMe’s assets for $256 million, Anne Wojcicki has taken back control of the troubled DNA testing company she co-founded.

On Friday, Wojcicki’s new nonprofit, TTAM Research Institute, announced it would acquire nearly all of 23andMe’s assets in a $305 million deal, topping Regeneron’s earlier bid and putting the company back in her hands. The sale includes 23andMe’s core genetic testing business, its research services, and its telehealth arm, Lemonaid Health.

“23andMe Holding Co. (“23andMe” or the “Company”) (OTC: MEHCQ), a leading human genetics and biotechnology company, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with TTAM Research Institute (“TTAM”), a nonprofit public benefit corporation based in California and led by 23andMe Co-Founder and former CEO Anne Wojcicki, for the sale of substantially all of the Company’s assets, including the Personal Genome Service (PGS) and Research Services business lines and the Lemonaid Health business, for a purchase price of $305 million,” the company said in a news release.

“TTAM will acquire substantially all of 23andMe’s assets for $305 million, including its Personal Genome Service and Research Services business lines as well as telehealth subsidiary Lemonaid Health,” CNBC reported.

It’s a full-circle moment for Wojcicki, who stepped down as CEO when the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March. She formed TTAM shortly after and pushed to reopen the auction, submitting a higher offer and ultimately winning out. According to The Wall Street Journal, TTAM stands for the first letters in 23andMe.

“I am thrilled that TTAM Research Institute will be able to continue the mission of 23andMe to help people access, understand and benefit from the human genome,” Wojcicki said in a statement.

Once a Silicon Valley success story, 23andMe made waves with its at-home DNA testing kits that promised to uncover ancestry details and genetic traits. It went public in 2021 via SPAC merger and reached a peak valuation of around $6 billion. But that didn’t last.

The company struggled to bring in repeat revenue. Its business model leaned heavily on one-time test kits, making it difficult to grow without constant customer acquisition. Attempts to pivot into subscriptions, drug development, and research partnerships fell flat. And by 2023, things had only gotten worse.

That year, hackers breached the data of nearly 7 million customers. Privacy fears, already a concern for genetic data companies, flared up again. California’s Attorney General recently warned residents to consider deleting their DNA data from the platform altogether.

The downfall of 23andMe wasn’t unexpected. A year ago, we wrote “The Rise and Fall of 23andMe,” chronicling how the company’s stock fell from $17.65 a share to penny stock territory. Today, it’s worth about $25 million in market cap, down roughly 96% from its high.

The company filed for bankruptcy with estimated assets and liabilities each in the $100 million to $500 million range. It formed a special committee in March to explore next steps. Wojcicki made multiple proposals to take the company private, all of which were rejected—until now.

Whether this deal can bring 23andMe back from the brink is still unclear. Wojcicki says she’s committed to transparency and giving users more control over their genetic data. That might be enough to rebuild trust, but it’ll take more than good intentions to revive the business.

23andMe was founded in 2006 by Linda Avey, Paul Cusenza, and Anne Wojcicki. It pioneered direct-to-consumer genetic testing, giving everyday people access to their health and ancestry data without going through a doctor. But its reliance on one-off kit sales and inability to build lasting revenue streams left it exposed. The company’s bet on long-term research and therapeutics never paid off.

Now, with TTAM stepping in, 23andMe gets one more shot—this time under the same founder who helped build it in the first place.

The deal is still pending approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.