The genetic testing company 23andMe filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday after months of uncertainty over its business model and mounting concerns about the security of the troves of customer data it holds.
In a statement, 23andMe said it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to “facilitate a sale process to maximize the value of its business” and make further cost reductions. Anne Wojcicki, chief executive of 23andMe, announced that she had resigned in order to bid on the company.
23andMe intends to continue operating during the sale process, with no changes to the way it stores, manages or protects customer data, the statement said.
Ms. Wojcicki, the company’s co-founder, who had owned 49 percent of its voting stock, said on Sunday that she was disappointed that the company had rejected her previous bid to take it private.
“I have resigned as C.E.O. of the company so I can be in the best position to pursue the company as an independent bidder,” she said in a statement on social media, thanking what she said were the company’s 15 million customers. Those customers provide the company with a saliva sample for analysis, usually to learn details about their ancestry, family traits and potential health risks.
After 23andMe went public in 2021, its market value briefly topped $6 billion. But it traded at less than $50 million last week, before the bankruptcy filing. In the first nine months of its current fiscal year, the company reported a 7 percent decline in revenue and losses of $174 million.
Part of the drop in earnings was attributed to fewer test kits being ordered. That came after a data breach in 2023, in which hackers appeared to target Jewish and Chinese customers, and gained access to personal information from nearly seven million profiles.
A class-action lawsuit subsequently accused the company of failing to notify those customers that they had been targeted. The company said in a statement at the time that it was taking steps to further protect customer data.
In September, seven independent directors of the company’s board resigned, citing frustration with its direction.