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Anne Wojcicki, co-founder and chief executive officer of 23andme Inc., during the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, US, on Friday, March 10, 2023. 

Jordan Vonderhaar | Bloomberg | Getty Images

All seven independent directors of 23andMe resigned from the company’s board Tuesday, a move that CEO Anne Wojcicki said left her “surprised and disappointed,” according to a memo to employees.

Wojcicki, who co-founded 23andMe in 2006, said she remains committed to taking the company private.

The genetic-testing company went public in 2021 through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), and the share price has been mostly in freefall since then, dropping more than 95% from its high. The directors formed a special committee in late March to explore potential paths forward.

Wojcicki submitted a proposal to take the company private in July, but it was rejected by the special committee, in part because it didn’t provide a premium to the closing price of 40 cents per share at the time.

In a letter to Wojcicki on Tuesday, the directors said they had yet to see a “fully financed, fully diligenced, actionable proposal that is in the best interests of the non-affiliated shareholders.” The directors said they disagree with Wojcicki about the “strategic direction for the company,” so they decided to resign effective immediately.

“That we have not seen any notable progress over the last 5 months leads us to believe no such proposal is forthcoming,” they wrote. “The Special Committee is therefore unwilling to consider further extensions, and the Board agrees with the Special Committee’s determination.”

Wojcicki wrote in the employee memo, which was viewed by CNBC, that she still sees taking 23andMe private as its “best opportunity for long term success.” The company will begin a search for new independent directors to join the board, she added.

Far from its onetime valuation of $3.5 billion, 23andMe now has a market cap of under $200 million. The shares closed at 34 cents on Tuesday.

Here’s Wojcicki’s full memo:

Team 23,

We wanted to let you know that the 23andMe Board issued a press release this afternoon stating that all of the independent directors have resigned from the Board, effective immediately.

I am surprised and disappointed by the decision of the directors to resign.    

I have been committed to the mission of 23andMe for the last 18 years and believe strongly in the potential for genetic information to transform healthcare and the therapeutic discovery process. I remain committed to our customers, my employees and to our stockholders to achieve our goals.  I continue to believe that we will be better positioned to achieve our mission and goals outside of the short term pressures of the public markets and that taking 23andMe private will be the best opportunity for long term success. 

We will immediately begin identifying independent directors to join the board.  I want to thank the directors for their service to the company and its stockholders. 

I don’t have additional information to share at this time, but we will update as we can at Thursday’s Feisty.   

Anne

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Microsoft will raise prices of commercial Office subscriptions in July

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Microsoft will raise prices of commercial Office subscriptions in July

A general view of the Microsoft office building is seen in Cologne, Germany, on November 18, 2025.

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Microsoft said Thursday that it will increase the prices of Office productivity software subscriptions for commercial and government clients on July 1.

The company’s Office applications, which include Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, have been facing increased competition in recent years from Google.

“We are continuously investing and innovating our platform for the future,” Nicole Herskowitz, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365 and Copilot, wrote in a blog post. “In the last year, we released more than 1,100 features across Microsoft 365, Security, Copilot, and SharePoint.” The new features have added value to the suites, she wrote.

Price hikes for commercial Office subscriptions have been infrequent. In 2022, Microsoft raised prices of its productivity bundles for the first time since launching the original Office 365 subscriptions in 2011. Microsoft changed the name of Office 365 to Microsoft 365 in 2020. In January, Microsoft announced a price hike for consumer Office bundles.

Microsoft offers Office 365 subscriptions for commercial use that include access to its productivity applications, along with higher-priced Microsoft 365 subscriptions that also include Windows operating system updates.

Here’s a breakdown of the commercial price changes:

  • For small and medium-sized businesses, Microsoft 365 Business Basic will cost $7 per person per month, up from $6.
  • Microsoft 365 Business Standard will be available for $14, up from $12.50.
  • Microsoft 365 Business Premium will continue to cost $22.
  • The entry-level Office 365 E1 offering for enterprises will still be sold for $10.
  • Office 365 E3 will jump 13% to $26 from $23.
  • The Microsoft 365 E3 package including Windows for enterprises will rise 8% to $39 from $36.
  • The full-featured Microsoft 365 E5 will increase to $60 from $57.
  • For front-line workers such as cashiers, Microsoft 365 F1 subscriptions will cost $3, up from $2.25.
  • Microsoft 365 F3 will be available for $10, up from $8.

The U.S. Defense Department and other government clients will face similar percentage price increases.

The various subscriptions all exclude access to the $30 Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on that draws on generative artificial intelligence models. Some companies have started widely rolling out Copilot, while others have held off on expanding their deployments, CNBC reported last week.

In many cases, organizations receive discounts off of list prices, but Microsoft has cut back on direct volume deals for some types of customers.

Almost 43% of Microsoft’s $77.7 billion in fiscal first-quarter revenue came from its Productivity and Businesses Processes segment, which includes Office. In October, the company said revenue from Microsoft 365 commercial cloud services jumped 17%, while seats increased 6%, mainly from products targeting small and medium-sized businesses and front-line workers.

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Cramer says this retail stock is ‘one of the greatest performers of all time’

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Google taps AI vibe-coder Replit in challenge to Anthropic and Cursor

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Google taps AI vibe-coder Replit in challenge to Anthropic and Cursor

People walk next to the Google Cloud logo, during the 2025 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, March 4, 2025.

Albert Gea | Reuters

Google Cloud announced Thursday a multi-year partnership with artificial intelligence coding startup Replit, giving the search giant fresh firepower against the coding products of rivals, including Anthropic and Cursor

Under the partnership, Replit will expand usage of Google Cloud services, add more of Google’s models onto its platform, and support AI coding use cases for enterprise customers.

Google will continue to be Replit’s primary cloud provider. 

Replit, founded nearly a decade ago, is a leader in the fast-growing AI vibe-coding space.

In September, the startup closed a $250 million funding round that almost tripled its valuation to $3 billion, and said it grew annualized revenue from $2.8 million to $150 million in less than a year. 

And new data from Ramp, a fintech company that also tracks enterprise spending on its platform, found that Replit had the fastest new customer growth among software vendors. Google, meanwhile, is adding new customers and spending faster than any other company on Ramp’s platform.

Put those together, and you get a clearer picture of why both companies see opportunity.

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Vibe-coding emerged as a phenomenon earlier this year after AI models became more adept at generating code using only natural language prompts, allowing users with little experience in programming to use AI to create functioning code and potentially full applications. 

Anthropic announced on Tuesday that its product Claude Code hit $1 billion in run-rate revenue. The coding startup Cursor, in November, closed a funding round that valued it at $29.3 billion, while also announcing it reached $1 billion in annualized revenue. 

Replit, which bills itself as an easy-to-use product for non-developers, could help drive Google Cloud adoption among enterprises, and expand the reach of its AI efforts beyond traditional engineers. 

Google is riding on the momentum of its new top-scoring model, Gemini 3. Shares of Alphabet have risen more than 12% since its debut. 

Google gathers AI momentum after Gemini 3 release

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