In Lean Times, 23 and Me Pays $4M to a Company Officer. Why?

(MoneyWatch)  Is it really the best time for 23andMe, a leader in recreational genetic testing to be handing $4 million to an executive officer? That's the news from an SEC Form D filing the company made back in December. The official explanation is the $4 million was a payback to a company officer for a loan, with the money coming from the company's series B financing, which included an investment from Google. 23andMe wouldn't say which officer, but if it's Anne Wojcicki, the wife of Google founder Sergey Brin, wouldn't that be kinda redundant?

Given the fact that it's a rocky time financially for 23andMe, it also seems like a bad time to lay out so much cash to one person. We know that Linda Avey, the founder, quit in September, sending signals to investors that the start-up was in trouble. Last summer, the company off ten employees, and then raised the price of their tests. Ever since deCODE genetics, their Icelandic competition, went bankrupt last November, many have been questioning the viability of recreational genetic testing as a business. The reason is that scientists have shifted their focus to mapping the entire genome of individual patients, rather than small slivers of the genome from a lot of different individuals. On top of it all, morale is low at 23andMe, and aren't keeping quiet about it. It won't make them any happier knowing that $4M went to one person, when it could have been used to pay the salaries of 40 employees for a year at a $100k a year