The layoffs, which affect about 14 percent of the company’s staff, are primarily among its operations teams, according to the report. Last fall, CNBC reported that the DNA testing market appeared to be slowly declining.
The layoffs are part of 23andMe’s effort to downsize. The employees being laid off focused on the company’s growth and scaling efforts. Moving forward, 23andMe will zero-in on its direct-to-consumer business and its therapeutics arm while retracting its focus from clinical studies, according to the report.
While 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki told the network she was “surprised” to see the market drop, she said some of her possible theories for declining sales are consumer privacy concerns and fear of an economic downturn.
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