Category Archives: Bankruptcy

Regeneron Wins Bid for Bankrupt 23andMe – Wedding Planned

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Today, it was announced that Regeneron Pharmaceuticals is the winner of the bankruptcy auction for 23andMe, having submitted a $256 million bid. 23andMe went public with a value of 3.5 billion in 2021, reaching 6 billion shortly thereafter. Regeneron’s bid is a highly discounted 4.27% of its highest value.

The second highest bid of $156 million was placed by a nonprofit research institute founded by 23andMe’s founder and former CEO, Anne Wojcicki, representing 2.6% of the company’s highest value.

The purchase will include all of the 23andMe assets, including customer data, except for 23andMe’s Lemonaid “on demand” health division, which will be discontinued. 23andMe will be operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Regeneron.

Regeneron has offered employment to all 23andMe employees and has committed to comply with the existing 23andMe Privacy Policies, protect customer privacy, and safeguard their genetic data.

Currently, an ombudsman appointed by the bankruptcy court is evaluating the impact, if any, on 23andMe customer privacy, and will report back to the court by June 10th.

A date of June 17th has been set for a Sale Hearing for the court to finalize approval of the sale, with the actual transaction to occur sometime in the third quarter of 2025.

23andMe has secured a loan to continue operations to bridge the gap between now and the closing of the sale transaction.

What Does This Mean to Genetic Genealogy?

Aside from the statements about privacy, we don’t know how this will affect the 23andMe genealogy products and features.

Regeneron’s announcement includes this statement:

23andMe will be operated as a wholly owned direct or indirect subsidiary of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and continue operations as a personal genomics service. Regeneron’s purchase does not include 23andMe’s Lemonaid Health business. Additional details about the company’s operating plans will be shared at time of closing.

Regeneron’s focus is clearly on genetics-driven pharmaceuticals.

While that certainly aligns well with 23andMe’s mission, the future of genetic genealogy under that umbrella is uncertain.

Essentially, 23andMe used genetic genealogy to entice people into paying to test, and hopefully to opt-in for research. For some reason, their partnerships with pharmaceutical companies had expired and were apparently not renewed, causing the company to lay off workers twice in 2023.

Regeneron, according to their website, uses the DNA of consented volunteers, and provides a list of projects and collaborations, here.

In January 2023, Regeneron announced that they had access to more than 2 million sequences, followed by a collaboration in January 2025 with Truveta that provided access to another 10 million de-identified sequences.

If 23andMe started out with 15 million testers before the combined effects of the breach and bankruptcy, and let’s say that an estimated 2 million of those people deleted their accounts, based on how many matches disappeared, that leaves 23andMe with 13 million customers. 23andMe has said in the past that 80% of their customers opt-in for research, so that’s about 10.5 million consented people available to Regeneron for research purposes. The fact that 23andMe customers are not de-identified and may have answered innumerable questions probably makes the 23andMe database even more valuable to them.

Plus, 23andMe customers pay to test, unlike the volunteers that Regeneron uses today.

It’s unclear how many of the existing 23andMe customers tested for the purpose of genealogy, or for the purpose of health, or how many people would have tested anyway if 23andMe didn’t have a genealogy aspect.

Unfortunately, since the data breach in 2023, many of the features and tools important to genealogists were removed and never returned. Furthermore, 23andMe was already deficient due to the lack of trees and a cap on the number of your matches. It was evident that genealogy wasn’t a high priority for them – but until the breach, they seemed to be willing to provide some genealogy services to genealogists. That leads me to believe that a nontrivial number of their customers tested for genealogy, or a combination of genealogy plus health.

More recently, their subscription offerring provided additional matches and other features, but also required customers to test again. That was a nonstarter for me. I suspect that this wasn’t terribly successful, given that you have to pay to test again, then additionally for a subscription, but don’t receive matching segment data anymore, or triangulation, or trees.

Of course, Regeneron might decide to invest in returning the discontinued tools and creating more. They certainly have the resources to do so. On the other hand, they could just as easily decide that genealogy tools are far outside of their realm of expertise, and not broadly attractive.

Truthfully, I was really, REALLY hoping that a genealogy-focused company like either MyHeritage or FamilyTreeDNA, both of whom accept DNA file uploads, would purchase (at least) the genealogy aspects of 23andMe and work to improve them.

Sadly, that wasn’t to be.

Now What?

For now, just “save the date” while we wait for the ombudsman report, for the court to approve the sale, and then information from Regeneron about what it plans to do with, about, or for genealogists.

Resources:

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23andMe Files for Bankruptcy – What You Need to Know!

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I dreaded this day, but 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy protection from their creditors. 23andMe announced this turn of events publicly with an open letter to their customers, here, and the attorney general for the State of California, where 23andMe is located, has issued an urgent consumer alert, here, suggesting that customers may want to consider deleting their data at 23andMe.

Let me be very clear – this is ONLY related to 23andMe and no other DNA testing company.

What is Going On?

With 23andMe filing for bankruptcy, the assets of 23andMe now fall under the supervision of the bankruptcy court. The court’s job is to oversee the planning of a “fresh start” by liquidating assets and/or creating repayment plans for fair and orderly debt payment to 23andMe’s creditors.

From the 23andMe blog article:

Filing for Chapter 11 protection under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code is a reorganization process that allows for a company to restructure its finances and operations, including though (sic) a sale of certain or all of its assets, while continuing to operate its business.

I wrote about the problems at 23andMe last September in the article, “23andMe Trouble – Step-by-Step Instructions to Preserve Your Data and Matches.”

I strongly recommend that you read that article, because it includes additional information that I’m not repeating here, such as how to preserve your data and how to download your DNA files. It also includes other resources and articles that detail the history of what has occurred.

When I wrote that article, I calculated the $ burn rate based on financial information provided by 23andMe. I’m not a financial analyst, so I didn’t share that calculation, but unless something changed dramatically, they would be out of money about now. And indeed, they are.

Some people interpreted 23andMe’s presence at RootsTech, combined with their promises about features they are planning to resuscitate, as a good sign, but I suspected it was a last gasp and an attempt to generate immediate revenue via sales. New features or even old features redesigned and re-released require developers and staff. A company on the threshold of bankruptcy would be running very lean.

There’s nothing wrong with attempting to generate revenue, of course, and I’m glad they are/were trying to stay in business, but it appears it may have been too little, too late.

Having said that, the bankruptcy court may restructure their debt without selling (all of) their assets. We simply don’t know.

Therein lies the problem. We simply don’t know.

What Does This Mean to Genealogists?

23andMe’s focus has never been about genealogy, but on health, medical research, and big pharma. That means they never developed the tools that genealogists requested, as genealogy did not align with their corporate goals. At one point, 23andMe partnered with MyHeritage for trees, but when that relationship was discontinued, 23andMe never offered trees – a foundation of genealogy.

23andMe welcomed genealogists to test, of course, hoping that a substantial number of their 16 million customers would opt-in to sharing their DNA for research.

Many genealogists, me included, made important discoveries at 23andMe – particularly people who were looking for close relationships, given that 23andMe was the first company to offer autosomal testing in 2007. Often people who tested at 23andMe, specifically for medical or health results, are not found in genealogy databases, making 23andMe a unique and important resource for adoptees and people searching for unknown close relatives.

Unfortunately, after their data breach in the fall of 2023, many of the features enjoyed by and critical to genealogists were removed and never returned.

DNA is a Non-Repeat Business

One of the challenges facing 23andMe is that without other features and benefits, such as trees or records data, or at least multiple types of DNA testing with features genealogists want, DNA testing is a one-and-done proposition. That’s why companies update their ethnicity and come up with cool new genealogy features – to keep you coming back.

23andMe introduced some features behind a subscription wall, which generated ongoing revenue, but most of those are health-focused. For a genealogist, they hold little allure, and given that you can’t just subscribe, but are required to retest – well – for me, it just wasn’t going to happen.

The bottom line is that 23andMe’s current financial situation, especially since the expensive $30 million data breach settlement, is untenable. Hence, the bankruptcy.

Your DNA is an Asset

I don’t know what’s going to happen, but your DNA file, the fact that you opted-in for research (if you did), and you as a customer are all considered part of their corporate assets which are now available for sale, under bankruptcy protection. In other words, another company, with court approval, could purchase their database or some portion thereof.

23andMe is officially for sale, in whole or in part.

From the 23andMe blog article:

  • 23andMe has made the decision to facilitate a sale of its business by initiating voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings. 23andMe intends to continue operating its business in the ordinary course throughout the process.
  • If approved by the Bankruptcy Court, the Company will actively solicit qualified bids to acquire all or parts of 23andMe.

It’s also important to note that they are not just turning the lights off. From their blog:

  • All orders and subscriptions will continue as normal, and any recent purchases or genetic testing kits sent in for processing will be handled without disruption.

Review Your Account

Regardless of what you decide to do, now would be a good time to review your 23andMe account to be sure you understand:

  • If your DNA is stored for future use. If so, you can request to have your biological sample destroyed, regardless of whether you maintain your account at 23andMe or not.
  • If you have opted-in to allow 23andMe and/or third-party researchers to use your genetic data and stored sample. If so, you can opt-out, even if you decide to keep your test active at 23andMe.

You can also delete your results and close your account, but if you make that decision, please do so AFTER downloading anything you want, including your DNA file, which you can safely upload, for free, to:

You’ll find instructions here.

I’m not saying that the sky is falling, but I am suggesting that you take few minutes and evaluate your relationship with 23andMe, why you tested, your goals, and any current or potential benefits you may receive from your DNA being at 23andMe.

You’ll need to weigh your personal goals against the unknown, meaning who may purchase the 23andMe assets and your comfort level.

Step by Step Instructions

Let me begin this section by saying that the 23andMe website has been either exceedingly busy/slow or unavailable today, for obvious reasons.

Many people are probably signing in that haven’t done so in a long time. So, if you can’t get in right away, please don’t panic. Just try again later.

Please note that one of the steps to delete your information is by verifying your birthday and year, so if you have not added that information, do so before you attempt to delete your kit.

You can do this in Step 1.

Step 1 – Check Your Birth Date

Select Settings at upper right when you sign on.

Scroll down to Date of Birth and then click on View/Edit.

While you are there, review the rest of your settings to be sure they are what you want.

Step 2 – Check Your Sample Storage (Biobanking)

Under settings, scroll down to Preferences.

If you’ve given 23andMe permission to store your sample, that authorizes them to run additional tests if you also authorize genetic research.

Your current selection is displayed. To edit your choice, click on edit and make your changes. You can read more about biobanking at 23andMe here.

If you previously elected to store your DNA sample, you can change that preference and any remaining DNA sample will be destroyed.

Making this decision does NOT close your account and does not affect your ability to use your account. That is a completely separate action.

Step 3 – Check Your Status for Participating in Genetic Research

To check your consent settings for research, under Settings, scroll down to “Research and Product Consents.”

Review your answers and click Edit to make changes.

If you previously elected to participate in research, you can change that preference at any time without affecting your ability to use your account. Changing this preference at 23andMe does NOT close your account, which is a completely separate action.

Step 4 – Download Your Data

Regardless of whether you delete your data or not, this is a good time to download your data. Under Settings, scroll all the way to the bottom to the section titled 23andMe Data.

Click on View to read more or to either download your data or delete your data/account.

Please do NOT delete your account until you read Step 5, below.

23andMe generates several types of data that you may wish to download.

Step 5 – Deleting Your Data (if that’s your decision)

I’m not saying you should delete your data. In fact, I’m not making a recommendation either way. That decision is entirely up to you.

Here are some additional factors to consider.

  • Any data download or deletion requests will be verified by sending an email to your email address on file, so if your email isn’t current, you won’t be able to do either of those activities. You can update your email, which is found under Account Information, under Settings, but your new email must be verified and that is a 2FA (two-factor authentication) process.
  • If you manage other people’s profiles under your account, and you delete your account, their profiles are deleted too. If you want to save their profile, you can create a new account and transfer a profile to that account.
  • You can also delete a single profile from your account without affecting the rest of the profiles in your account, but if you delete your entire account, ALL profiles IN your account are deleted as well.

Here’s what 23andMe says about an account closure request:

If you participated in 23andMe Research, your Personal Information will no longer be used in any future research projects. If you asked us to store your genetic samples, they will be discarded. We will retain limited information about you, including records of this deletion request, and other information as required by law and otherwise described in our Privacy Statement.

If you have questions about your privacy, contact privacy@23andme.com, and if you have issues with account settings or data deletion, contact  customercare@23andme.com, or use their chat feature.

To be clear, data deletion and account closure is one action, occur together, and are permanent and irrevocable. If you change your mind, you can always choose to retest later, which you would have to do anyway if you ever wanted to subscribe to their updated features.

The Big Question

Now, everyone is going to be asking themselves if they want to update their permissions or delete their account – or maybe some people aren’t concerned at all.

I want to reiterate that this situation solely involves the uncertainty surrounding the status of 23andMe and its asset distribution during bankruptcy.

No other DNA testing company is affected.

I know you’re all wondering what I’m going to do.

Truthfully, I haven’t entirely decided, but at least one of my consideration is probably different from yours.

Were it not for my blog and my desire to provide you with the best up-to-date quality information, both here and in presentations, I would have deleted my data from 23andMe some time ago.

I have already revoked all research consents and have never stored my DNA at 23andMe because they never had multiple DNA products, so there was never any possibility of upgrading. In other words, my DNA storage would have been for their benefit, not for mine.

Here’s what the 23andMe website says under “Delete Data”:

What happens to my data if the company is sold or otherwise changes ownership?

If the company does change ownership in the future, your data will remain protected under the current 23andMe Privacy Policy unless and until you are presented with materially new terms, with appropriate advanced notice to review those material changes as required by law.

I don’t know how much comfort this brings you. It appears we would receive notice.

We’ve all thought of the negative scenarios, but there’s another side to this coin too.

As you ponder the situation, remember that the primary candidates to purchase 23andMe, or the database, would be other DNA testing companies. I have my fingers crossed, personally, because I’d love to preserve these matches AND obtain better tools. That could be a win-win for everyone.

And if 23andMe does not survive as a company, and another genealogy DNA company doesn’t purchase the database, you can always delete your data and close your account when we have a better handle on the outcome.

So, for now, I’m waiting but I’m also monitoring the situation VERY closely! You can read more about the court proceedings and bankruptcy restructuring as it progresses, here.

So, what’s your decision? Stay, go, or wait?

If you go, I hope you at least make lemonade out of this situation by uploading to both FamilyTreeDNA and MyHeritage if you haven’t already done so or haven’t yet tested there directly.

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Thank you so much.

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Family Tree Magazine and Family Tree University Files Bankruptcy

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Earlier today, after I said the words, “what the heck else can go wrong,” apparently the Universe took that as a challenge.

I opened the mail and inside was a bankruptcy notification that F&W Media had filed bankruptcy. While you probably won’t recognize that name, you will recognize Family Tree Magazine and Family Tree University with their online classes, conferences and huge, huge bookstore. Here’s the link, but this is NOT an affiliate link, just so you know. To be very clear, I’m not recommending that you purchase anything. (Please note that these companies, in spite of similar-sounding names are NOT in any way affiliated with Family Tree DNA.)

If you look at who is teaching at the Family Tree University upcoming Virtual Conference this weekend, you’ll see names you recognize. If you look at the bookstore, it’s a who’s who of authors within our community. It’s also heavily weighted towards genetic genealogy.

Those people aren’t being paid. Not now, and maybe never.

Bankruptcy Notification

This is the lovely howdy-do that I and every other instructor with unpaid classes and most (if not all) authors received in the mail today.

F&W Media bankruptcy 1.jpg

You can click to enlarge.F&M media bankruptcy 2.jpg

What Does This Mean?

This notification means that F&W Media applied in court about a week ago for protection FROM their creditors. The court was provided with a list of creditors 542 pages in length, with 30 names per page, for a whopping total of 16,260 people or companies that they owe money.

Almost all of those people you see on their website are creditors meaning we have sent them an invoice for recent services, such as the upcoming conference, or they owe us money and haven’t paid it. In some cases, a LOT of money.

While I’m angry, I’m “only owed” hundreds of dollars as compared to others who are owed thousands.

In the case of the Virtual Conference scheduled this upcoming weekend, my sessions were due to be delivered to F&M media on February 15th. I did and subsequently sent them an invoice on February 19th for those sessions. Instead of a check, I received this bankruptcy notification. Actually, that’s probably a good thing, because some of the checks they did send to people bounced, causing the recipients overdraft fees and additional headaches, especially if they wrote checks themselves on the deposited funds.

However, Family Tree University is continuing to present the conference this weekend utilizing the work of the people who will probably never receive payment.

How Does Bankruptcy Work?

I’m not a lawyer, but I have been a creditor in two prior bankruptcies. Obviously, bankruptcy is filed when the company has no possibility of paying their bills, so they seek protection from their creditors under the law and direction of how to distribute the money they do have among those creditors.

After the bankruptcy suit is filed, any debt before the filing is now within the bankruptcy court meaning managed by the court. The company may be able to continue business, starting over debt-free, in essence from that day forward. The court decides.

Whether, as a contractor who just got jilted, you want to continue to work for them and believe that the company can and will pay you for future work is another matter. To say that the trust has been eroded would be the understatement of the year.

In this bankruptcy filing, the book division may be sold off, which may provide future relief for the authors. I say “future relief,” meaning that they may be paid for the books sold in the future. Whether they are paid anything at all for the amount of money they are currently owed for royalties or for the books already sold is up to the judge.

To have a PRAYER of collecting anything, the creditors (meaning me and the others) must file additional paperwork with the court in Delaware by June 7th.

Then, the court will decide what debts are legitimate and will divide the assets of the company among the approved creditors. Creditors with secured debts are paid in full first.

In personal debt, a secured debt means that the debt is secured by something tangible, like your house or car. If you don’t pay the bill, that item can be sold to liquidate the debt.

Credit cards are examples of unsecured debt which is one reason why the interest rates are so much higher. So is the risk to the creditor of not being paid.

In corporate debt, tangible assets could be land, buildings or things like a book division that has residual value and is not losing money.

Next, the unsecured debt is paid in the order that the judge deems fit.

Here’s what I know for sure – in the two cases I previously was involved with as a creditor, I jumped through a lot of hoops and received absolutely not one red cent. Zero, zip, zilch. Nada.

In one case, the final disposition took years and I was owed more than $10,000, depending on how you count – meaning whether or not you include interest from when the debt was originally incurred. If you count from the beginning when the debt was incurred to the miserable end, that total approached $20,000, with interest included.

Poorly Handled

This situation was very poorly handled by F&W Media. They clearly knew there were having huge issues, yet they proceeded, signing contracts they clearly knew they could not honor, taking advantage of the giving spirit of the genealogical community. That’s bad faith, pure and simple.

The leaders of this community already contribute a lot. What we are paid for each session is almost a token amount, but many of us provide these and other similar sessions as a way of giving back to the community in a medium that can reach the highest number of people. That’s in addition to contributing things like this blog that is free for everyone.

Every professional that I can think of does similar things utilizing different technologies and contributes in many ways.

Shock Waves

This bankruptcy, in part because of the massive scale and the thousands of dollars owed to some people just before tax time has sent shock waves through the professional levels of the genealogical community.

No one can afford to take a “pay check” hit of, in some cases, thousands of dollars.

We feel betrayed, and at the same time, we feel sorry for the employees we’ve worked with for years. Most of them are gone now too, without a peep or a goodbye, before we knew. I hope they land on their collective feet and I certainly want to believe they had no direct knowledge that F&W was taking advantage of us.

At least they qualify for unemployment. We don’t.

We Need to Have a Discussion

After the shock of this situation wears off, after we’ve had a chance to deal with the ramifications, and after tax season when we’re all insane, especially those who were counting on those funds owed to pay their corporate taxes, we, the community, need to have a discussion about education and payment of professionals for their services.

While I understand that we all would like for everything to be free – it isn’t. Education isn’t free and neither is continuing education required for us to stay on top of what’s happening in this industry. Every. Single. Day.

Those of us who work professionally in this field incur the costs of incorporation, a CPA to help with our corporate taxes and filings, sometimes lawyers, the cost of computer equipment, software, subscriptions, blogs, websites, servers, ISPs, travel and education. We also don’t have paid vacation, sick time, insurance or any other benefits, AND we pay all of our social security contribution (including the 7% paid by employers) as well as required federal and state unemployment tax, which we, as business owners, can never collect.

If you think, “what fun to go to conferences,” let me just say that I paid about $2500 to attend RootsTech which meant that I substituted RootsTech for paid client work for roughly a week. It was not an unpaid vacation. I attended 2 classes, 2 keynotes plus one that I left early, and 2 lunches. I went to the FHL for parts of 2 days, so about a day in total for my own research. That’s it.

What was I doing the rest of the time for those 7 days? Contributing one way or another. Unpaid. Gratis. Including the class where I prepared the session and substituted for another speaker who became ill. That’s what genealogists do for each other.

Here’s a surprise. At least one speaker got to attend NO sessions at all. Not a single one.

This isn’t a pity party, it’s the reality that people never see behind owning a business. The last thing we need is to be unpaid, especially when others are making money as a result of those very efforts that we’re not being paid for. That’s adding insult to injury.

Consider that it takes approximately 2 to 3 DAYS, minimally, to produce a quality one-hour webinar or presentation. The pay from F&W Media was equal to approximately 1.5 HOURS of privately billed client work, so you’ll understand the outrage that we’re not even going to be paid that amount now AND the virtual conference that customers are paying to attend that includes our unpaid material is still going forward this coming weekend.

And just saying, this might not be a good time to say, “But you get to work for yourself,” either. 😊

All of the professionals that I know personally want to teach and provide services, but we want to be fairly compensated and paid. Perhaps contracts in this industry need to read differently and contain clauses that specifically address this type of situation. Maybe contracts need to contain clauses that state that the material can’t be utilized until it’s paid for and address bankruptcy specifically – and perhaps we all need to require that verbiage be included in every contract we sign.

I’m not sure how to address the issues of royalties and book sales, but I do know that we have a lot of bright people in this community and we can collectively figure out a way to protect ourselves from something like this happening again.

Once burned, twice shy.

What Can You Do?

Genealogical education, in particular for genetic genealogy, is absolutely crucial.

I hope you’ll support the authors and educators who give us so much by purchasing their books, webinars, subscriptions, products and services that they sell through OTHER outlets and avenues. If you’re buying anything, click through their (our) affiliate links. I won’t cost you anything and it provides a little something to them.

For blogs especially, affiliate links keep the lights on and the free articles coming.

If you’re purchasing a book, the author may well sell the book personally or can tell you the most advantageous methodology for purchasing. Check their website or drop them a line.

I know they won’t ask on behalf of themselves, so I am. The F&W bankruptcy is hurting a lot of people right now.

Thank you for your support as we struggle through this.

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Disclosure

I receive a small contribution when you click on some (but not all) of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

DNA Purchases and Free Transfers

Genealogy Services

Genealogy Research