Oprah to Depart Weight Watchers Board
Oprah Winfrey mentioned that she was stepping down from the board of Weight Watchers, a number of months after going public about taking a medicine for weight reduction.
The leisure mogul has been essentially the most distinguished spokeswoman for Weight Watchers since becoming a member of its board in 2015, serving to it climate competitors from different weight reduction firms whereas opening up a broader dialog round weight problems and eating regimen.
Her endorsement of Weight Watchers — she has mentioned she misplaced 40 kilos utilizing the corporate’s level system — satisfied many others to enroll, analysts mentioned.
The announcement despatched Weight Watchers shares right into a tailspin, with inventory falling 25 p.c in early buying and selling Thursday.
The corporate mentioned in a particular submitting with the Securities and Change Fee on Wednesday that Ms. Winfrey had notified the chairman that she wouldn’t be standing for re-election in Might, concluding an almost nine-year tenure on the board.
“Her determination was not the results of any disagreement with the corporate on any matter referring to the corporate’s operations, insurance policies or practices,” Weight Watchers mentioned within the submitting.
Ms. Winfrey, who has spent many years as a dominant determine within the nation’s conversations about weight and weight-reduction plan, revealed in December that she was taking a weight-loss treatment.
“The truth that there’s a medically accepted prescription for managing weight and staying more healthy, in my lifetime, looks like reduction, like redemption, like a present, and never one thing to cover behind and as soon as once more be ridiculed for,” she informed Individuals Journal.
In a press release from the corporate on Thursday, Ms. Winfrey mentioned that she deliberate to proceed advising the chief government of Weight Watchers, Sima Sistani, on “elevating the dialog round recognizing weight problems as a power situation.”
A consultant for Ms. Winfrey didn’t supply further remark.
The corporate mentioned within the assertion that Ms. Winfrey would donate the worth of her holdings in Weight Watchers to the Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition in Washington partly to “eradicate any perceived battle of curiosity round her taking weight reduction medicines.”
The corporate didn’t clarify the battle of curiosity, and a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
She owned about 1.13 million shares value $6.34 million, based on a Securities and Change Fee submitting on Jan. 1.
Ms. Winfrey has not specified which weight-loss drug she was taking. In 2021, researchers discovered that semaglutide, a drug to deal with diabetes, produced dramatic weight-loss outcomes amongst sufferers with weight problems. Since then, demand has soared for brand new medicine like Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound that may assist folks drop some pounds, partly by suppressing urge for food.
The emergence of such medicine has posed a enterprise problem to eating regimen plans like Weight Watchers. However the firm is pivoting towards a enterprise mannequin based mostly on its means to acquire the restricted provide of the much-coveted weight-loss medicine.
Final 12 months, Weight Watchers acquired Sequence, a subscription telehealth platform that provides, amongst different advantages, entry to healthcare suppliers who can prescribe weight-loss medicine together with Ozempic, for $106 million. (Customers pay $99 a month, not together with prescription prices.) The corporate additionally dropped a few of its in-person assembly choices, a well known instrument in its weight-loss plans, inspiring some prospects to prepare their very own assist teams.
After an preliminary run following the acquisition of Sequence, Weight Watchers inventory has misplaced greater than half its worth this 12 months.
Shares of the New York Metropolis-based firm have been damage due to “exacerbated issues” round its progress prospects and liquidity, Stephanie Davis, a Barclays analyst, mentioned.
“It’s nonetheless early in its turnaround story from being extra of an in-person weight-reduction plan mannequin to altering to a digital well being firm,” Ms. Davis mentioned in an interview, including that “transitions have a variety of threat.”