Actress and media magnate Oprah Winfrey will buy a 10% stake in Weight Watchers worldwide Inc and join the company’s board.
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Winfrey is buying about 6.4 million shares of Weight Watchers.
The share purchase agreement also provides Ms. Winfrey with the right to be nominated as director of the company for so long as she and certain permitted transferees own at least 3 percent of the company’s issued and outstanding Common Stock.
“I believe in the programme so much I chose to invest in the company and partner in its evolution”, Winfrey said in the statement.
She will also advise the company on program development and future products.
Based in New York, Weight Watchers is a commercial provider of weight management services, operating globally through a network of company-owned and franchise operations. Winfrey’s term on the Weight Watchers’ board expires in 2018.
Bringing her fans with her through her weight losses and gains is hardly new for Winfrey, who once wheeled a little red wagon filled with 67 pounds of fat in the late 1980s to illustrate how much weight she had lost.
Weight Watchers could use a boost of star power as it’s suffered from falling revenue as consumers migrate to free, digital methods for counting calories and keeping in shape.
Weight Watcher shares are moving up smartly on the news of the Oprah Winfrey deal, with the stock trading up around 90% at $12.88 per share in the premarket Monday.
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Weight Watchers, founded in 1963, will expand its goal to help people lead healthier lives, from just focusing on weight loss, chief executive Jim Chambers said in a statement on Monday.
