Theranos was a privately held health technology corporation. It was initially touted as a breakthrough technology company, with claims of having devised blood tests that required only very small amounts of blood. Theranos raised more than US$700 million from venture capitalists and private investors, resulting in a USD 10 billion valuation at its peak in 2013 and 2014. The company was near bankruptcy until it received a USD 100 million loan from Fortress Investment Group in 2017 secured by its patents. In September 2018, the company ceased operations. The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California announced the indictment of Holmes on wire fraud and conspiracy charges. The trial was scheduled to commence in August 2020, but it has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
About Theranos in brief
Theranos was a privately held health technology corporation. It was initially touted as a breakthrough technology company, with claims of having devised blood tests that required only very small amounts of blood. However, the claims later proved to be false. Theranos raised more than US$700 million from venture capitalists and private investors, resulting in a USD 10 billion valuation at its peak in 2013 and 2014. The company was near bankruptcy until it received a USD 100 million loan from Fortress Investment Group in 2017 secured by its patents. In September 2018, the company ceased operations. The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California announced the indictment of Holmes on wire fraud and conspiracy charges. The trial was scheduled to commence in August 2020, but it has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is currently scheduled to begin on March 9, 2021. Holmes dropped out of Stanford in 2003 and used the education trust from her parents to start a company that would make blood tests cheaper, more accessible and convenient to consumers. The name Theranos would later be derived from a combination of the words ‘therapy’ and ‘diagnosis’ The company’s original name was ‘Real-Time Cures, which changed after many people were dubious about the word ‘cure’ Theranos partnered with Walgreens to offer blood tests at more than 40 locations in 2013, but the deal was called off in 2015. Although many tests were reportedly used, Theranos reportedly missed deadlines and questionable results from a trial with Safeway’s Corporate Corporate Clinic at the Safeway store in San Francisco.
In 2012, Safeway invested USD 350 million into retrofitting 800 locations with 800 clinics that would offer tests in-store. In July 2016, the CMS, including the revocation of its CLIA certificate and prohibition of Holmes and other company officials from owning or operating a laboratory for two years. Theranos announced it would close its laboratory operations and wellness centers to work on miniature medical testing machines. After efforts to find a buyer went nowhere, what remained of the company dissolved on September 4, 2018, and Theranos was sold to a private equity firm for an undisclosed sum. The sale was completed in October 2018, with Theranos being valued at about $3.5 billion. The company has since been sold to San Francisco-based private equity company, Khosla Ventures, for a reported $2.4 billion. The deal was struck in October 2013. In March 2014, the SEC charged Theranos, Holmes, and former company president Ramesh \”Sunny\” Balwani with \”massive fraud\” by the SEC. Holmes agreed to resolve the charges against them, with Holmes paying a fine of USD 500,000, returning the remaining 18. 9 million shares that she held, relinquishing her control of theCompany, and being barred from being an officer or director of any public company for ten years. Holmes did not settle with the SEC’s complaint. Holmes’s personal net worth had dropped from USD 4. 5 billion to virtually nothing.
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This page is based on the article Theranos published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 09, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
