Connect with us

Published

on

Signage at 23andMe headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

23andMe on Tuesday reported declining revenue in its most recent quarter, a day after the company said it will cut 40% of its workforce and shutter its therapeutics business as part of a business restructuring plan.

The embattled genetics company reported $44.1 million in revenue for the fiscal second quarter, down from $50 million in the same period last year. 23andMe’s net loss narrowed to $59.1 million, or $2.32 per share, from $75.27 million, or $3.17 per share, a year ago.

23andMe said Monday that it’s eliminating more than 200 jobs, discontinuing all its therapeutics programs and winding down its ongoing clinical trials “as quickly as practical.” It’s evaluating strategic options such as asset sales and licensing agreements to “maximize the value” of the therapeutic programs, the release said.

“We are taking these difficult but necessary actions as we restructure 23andMe and focus on the long-term success of our core consumer business and research partnerships,” 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki, said in the release Monday. “I want to thank our team for their hard work and dedication to our mission. We are fully committed to supporting the employees impacted by this transition.”

The company said Tuesday that it’s looking to potentially raise additional capital.

Shares of 23andMe were down slightly on Tuesday. They’ve slumped 75% this year after losing more than half their value in 2023, pushing the company’s market cap toward $100 million.

Wojcicki, who co-founded 23andMe in 2006, has been working to keep the company afloat after it faced the risk of being delisted from the Nasdaq. Shares were hovering below $1 until 23andMe announced a 1-for-20 reverse stock split in October.

In September, all seven of the company’s independent directors abruptly resigned from the board, writing in a letter that they disagreed with Wojcicki about the “strategic direction for the company.” Three new independent directors were appointed to the board in late October.

“We have fulfilled our obligations as a public company and regained compliance with the NASDAQ listing standards by reconstituting our board and executing a reverse stock split,” Wojcicki said during 23andMe’s earnings call Tuesday.

Wojcicki has repeatedly said she intends to take 23andMe private, though she didn’t address the plans Tuesday. In a September filing with the SEC, she said she would not consider third-party takeover proposals, and said the “best path forward” is for her to take the company private.

23andMe declined to comment.

WATCH: The rise and fall of 23andMe

The rise and fall of 23andMe

Continue Reading

Technology

Former Trump advisor Dina Powell McCormick leaves Meta board after eight-month stint

Published

on

By

Former Trump advisor Dina Powell McCormick leaves Meta board after eight-month stint

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Dina Powell McCormick, who was a member of President Donald Trump’s first administration, has resigned from Meta’s board of directors.

Powell McCormick, who previously spent 16 years working at Goldman Sachs, notified Meta of her resignation on Friday, according to a filing with the SEC. The filing did not disclose why McCormick was stepping down from Meta’s board, but said her resignation was effective immediately.

Meta does not plan on replacing her board role, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named due to confidentiality. Powell McCormick is considering a potential strategic advisory role with Meta, but nothing has been decided, the person said.

Powell McCormick joined Meta’s board in April along with Stripe co-founder and CEO Patrick Collison. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement at the time that the two executives “bring a lot of experience supporting businesses and entrepreneurs to our board.”

Powell McCormick served as a deputy national security advisor to President Trump during his first stint in office and was also an assistant secretary of state during President George W. Bush’s administration.

She is married to Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa, who took office in January.

Powell McCormick is the vice chair, president and head of global client services at BDT & MSD Partners, which formed in 2023 after the merchant bank BDT combined with Michael Dell’s investment firm MSD.

With her departure, Meta now has 14 board members, including UFC CEO Dana White, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan and former Enron executive John Arnold.

WATCH: TikTok signs joint venture to create TikTok USDS Joint Venture.

TikTok signs joint venture to create TikTok USDS Joint Venture

Continue Reading

Technology

Musk’s $56 billion Tesla pay package must be restored as court rules cancellation was too extreme

Published

on

By

Musk's  billion Tesla pay package must be restored as court rules cancellation was too extreme

Elon Musk's 2018 Tesla pay package must be restored, Delaware Supreme Court rules

Elon Musk‘s 2018 CEO pay package from Tesla, worth some $56 billion when it vested, must be restored, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled Friday.

“We reverse the Court of Chancery’s rescission remedy and award $1 in nominal damages,” the judges wrote in their opinion.

In the decision, the Delaware Supreme Court judges said a lower court’s decision to cancel Musk’s 2018 pay plan was too extreme a remedy and that the lower court did not give Tesla a chance to say what a fair compensation ought to be.

The decision on the appeal in this case, known as Tornetta v. Musk, likely ends the yearslong fight over Musk’s record-setting compensation.

Musk’s net worth is currently estimated at around $679.4 billion, according to the Forbes Real Time Billionaires List.

Dorothy Lund, a professor at Columbia Law School, told CNBC that while the Friday opinion may restore the 2018 pay plan for Musk, it leaves the rest of the lower court’s decision unaddressed and intact.

“The court had previously decided that Musk was a controlling shareholder of Tesla and that the Tesla board and he arranged an unfair pay plan for him,” she said. “None of that was reversed in this decision.”

“We are proud to have participated in the historic verdict below, calling to account the Tesla board and its largest stockholder for their breaches of fiduciary duty,” lawyers representing plaintiff Richard J. Tornetta said in an e-mailed statement.

Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Delaware Supreme Court issued the order per curiam with no single judge taking credit for writing the opinion and no dissent noted.

Read more CNBC tech news

Musk’s 2018 CEO pay package from Tesla, comprised of 12 milestone-based tranches of stock, was unprecedented at the time it was proposed. After it was granted, the pay plan made Musk the wealthiest individual in the world.

Tesla shareholder Tornetta sued Tesla, filing a derivative action in 2018, accusing Musk and the company’s board of a breach of their fiduciary duties.

Delaware’s business-specialized Court of Chancery decided in January 2024 that the pay plan was improperly granted and ordered it to be rescinded.

In her decision, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick also found that Musk “controlled Tesla,” and that the process leading to the board’s approval of his 2018 pay plan was “deeply flawed.”

Among other things, she found the Tesla board did not disclose all the material information they should have to investors before asking them to vote on and approve the plan.

After the earlier Tornetta ruling, Musk moved Tesla’s site of incorporation out of Delaware, bashed McCormick by name in posts on his social network X, formerly Twitter, where he has tens of millions of followers, and called for other entrepreneurs to reincorporate outside of the state.

Tesla also attempted to “ratify” the 2018 CEO pay plan by holding a second vote with shareholders in 2024.

In November, Tesla shareholders voted to approve an even larger CEO compensation plan for Musk.

The 2025 pay plan consists of 12 tranches of shares to be granted to the CEO if Tesla hits certain milestones over the next decade and is worth about $1 trillion in total. The new plan could also increase Musk’s voting power over the company from around 13% today to around 25%.

Shareholders had also approved a plan to replace Musk’s 2018 CEO pay if the Tornetta decision was upheld on appeal. That plan is now nullified.

As CNBC previously reported, a law firm that currently represents Tesla in this appeal penned a bill to overhaul corporate law in Delaware earlier this year. The bill was passed by the Delaware legislature in March, and if it had applied retroactively, it could have affected the outcome of this case.

Read the Delaware Supreme Court’s ruling here.

Ron & Michael Baron on Elon Musk, Tesla and the next big, currently-overlooked opportunities in the market

Continue Reading

Technology

Cramer says Boeing is a buy here — plus, Wells Fargo and bank stocks keep rolling

Published

on

By

Cramer says Boeing is a buy here — plus, Wells Fargo and bank stocks keep rolling

Continue Reading

Trending