With $117 Million Gone Out The Door, Oprah Winfrey Helps Weight Watchers Find A New CEO

With $117 Million Gone Out The Door, Oprah
Winfrey Helps Weight Watchers Find A New CEO 

BHR Hollywood Reports.........The talk-show celebrity and 10% owner of Weight Watchers has seen $117 million in wealth vanish as shares of the company have crashed 66% from their high notched November 2015 on enthusiasm over her involvement with the company.

 Shares of Weight Watchers are down another 76 cents, or 7%, to $9.61 Tuesday after the company said it is replacing its CEO.

Oprah Winfrey 

 The value of the company has dropped $1.2 billion in value since the peak hit after Winfrey came onboard.

Oprah Winfrey will help Weight Watchers pick a new leader, the diet company said on Monday, about a year after the media mogul announced she had bought a 10 percent stake in the company.

Weight Watchers said its chief executive, James Chambers, would resign at the end of September after three years on the job.

 He and the board of directors, which includes Winfrey, made a "joint decision" that he should leave, according to the company.

Weight Watchers 

The company has struggled to compete with other weight-loss programs in recent years, and revenues in the quarter ended July 2 were little changed from a year earlier.

As of Monday's close, the company's stock price was down 55 percent for the year at $10.36. Shares fell as much as 9 percent in after-hours trading, following the announcement of Chambers' resignation.

Weight Watchers said no one from inside the company, including Winfrey, was considered a candidate to replace Chambers. The former talk show queen, along with members of a search committee, will be "actively involved" in finding his replacement, the company said.

chief executive James Chambers

Morningstar analyst R.J. Hottovy said in a note last month that "it will take more time and other technology, product development, and potential rebranding investments to make Weight Watchers' platform stand out from emergent rivals."

The third quarter of 2016 will be the company's fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year member recruitment growth, Chief Financial Officer Nicholas Hotchkin said in a statement.

Hotchkin and directors Thilo Semmelbauer and Christopher Sobecki will temporarily lead Weight Watchers until a replacement for Chambers is hired, according to the company.

In a statement, Chambers said he was proud of "the team's accomplishments in returning the company to growth" and of striking a partnership with Winfrey.