Posted on 02/27/2019 1:54:51 PM PST by jeannineinsd
Oprah Winfrey was likely feeling a lot lighter Tuesday evening – in her investment portfolio.
After the stock of WW (formerly Weight Watchers) nosedived in after-hours trading, the wellness company’s single biggest individual investor was down anywhere from $39 million to nearly $48 million, according to reports.
The stock, which was priced around $103 per share last June, sank to about $22 per share late Tuesday, reports said.
The drop followed WW Chief Executive Mindy Grossman’s disclosure to analysts that WW would have fewer members in 2019 than in 2018, the New York Post reported.
Grossman blamed the company’s winter advertising efforts, saying they “did not drive consumers in the way we had hoped.”
“Our marketing … needed to be more weight-loss focused, especially in the January season,” Grossman said.
Winfrey, who famously shared stories of her personal struggles with weight during her days as an afternoon talk-show host from 1986 to 2011, owns more than 5 million shares in WW, according to CNBC, which cited a January filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
That translates to more than 8 percent of the company, Bloomberg reported.
Grossman said Tuesday that Winfrey herself will be featured in WW’s future advertising.
“Looking ahead, I’m happy to say that Oprah Winfrey will play a central role in our upcoming TV and digital marketing campaign for spring, bringing to life a clear message on how WW is the program that works,” Grossman said in a statement. “Together with Oprah, we are also working on an initiative to galvanize and bring together communities through a series of digital and live experiences and events to accelerate WW’s impact and allow us to reach new and diverse audiences.”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Right. That joke's at least 30 years old.
No, they got a bunch of whizz kids in there, renamed the company, changed its focus, and completely re-vamped the marketing.
Step one in a recovery plan would be to fire everyone associated with the changes and go back to basics.
What? Oprah lost a lot of money? Oh, noes! I haz a sad.
Don’t know, but I am guessing that Oprah demanded it so it would be 2 W’s. Her last name is Winfrey.
She has that stupid magazine called “O” for Oprah, and she appears on every single cover! Such an ego.
They changed to “WW” to emphasize that the program is about “more than the numbers on a scale.” They’re pushing WW as Wellness Works, extolling the benefits of healthy food choices, fitness and lower corpulence.
And what did the spokesperson blame for the stock crash? Not emphasizing weight loss enough this winter, D’oh!!! They made a huge point, starting in December, that this wasn’t just about weight loss...
As a member for 7 years, and one who has lost 110+ lbs and kept it off, I thought it was a dumb change of program emphasis...
Beau Bridges, in the “The Landlord”(1970), knew!
Pocket change for her.
WW as in “white whale”.
I don’t know from reading this story if I’m supposed to feel bad for her at the loss of millions, or if I’m supposed to feel better about myself because she lost millions.
Neither is true.
Weight Watchers is in the middle of a massive identity crisis. They rebranded themselves as a lifestyle company that promotes healthy eating, not a weight loss program, and call themselves WW now. What is the market for paying a company to help you with “healthy eating”? It sounds like a horrible rebrand that was destined to fail and tank the stock. As prior posters point out, you don’t really need to pay a fortune to have some company tell you how to eat healthy. The real value to a Weight Watchers was some level of promise that they were helping overweight people to lose weight.
Her wallet is a whole lot lighter now.
She’s made a pretty good living ballooning up and then losing weight endorsing various weight loss diets, schemes, etc over the last 20 yrs or so.
But I think she’s cycled up and down so many times her credibility is low.
I’ve dropped over 40 lbs since 01 Jan.
Didn’t use anything other than common sense and eat less.
This isn’t rocket mechanics.
Oprah started out fat and has stayed fat.
She certainly did not follow the Weight Watchers plan.
OPRAH has yet to realize that her appeal and popularity have taken a larger hit than her Weight Watcher stock!
Ever since OPRAH let her Left-Wing political views be known, she lost half of her fans or followers. She went onto lose even more when her decidedly racial leanings were exposed by no less than she, herself, by regularly taking the black side of controversial black vs white police encounters and black vs black police encounters.
Her stints on cBS’ 60 Minutes didn’t help her popularity either. The “Round Tables” with “voters” that were predictably anti-Trump, soured Trump supporters who, prior to the airing, might have been Oprah fans.
Uh huh. That right there tells me to run the other way. Corporate mumbo jumbo talk.
And insufferable...
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