Oprah Winfrey leaving WeightWatchers board, donating curiosity within the firm to museum

Former discuss present host Oprah Winfrey is leaving WeightWatchers board of administrators and donating all of her curiosity within the firm to a museum.

Shares of WW Worldwide Inc. tumbled greater than 23% in Thursday morning buying and selling.

Winfrey, who instructed Individuals journal in December that she was utilizing a weight-loss remedy, has served on the corporate’s board since 2015. She is not going to stand for re-election at WeightWatchers annual assembly in Might.

WW Worldwide mentioned in a regulatory submitting that Winfrey’s choice “was not the results of any disagreement with the corporate on any matter referring to the corporate’s operations, insurance policies or practices.” The dimensions of its board will go from 10 to 9 members following its annual assembly, the New York firm added.

“I look ahead to persevering with to advise and collaborate with WeightWatchers and CEO Sima Sistani in elevating the dialog round recognizing weight problems as a continual situation, working to scale back stigma, and advocating for well being fairness,” Winfrey mentioned.

In response to FactSet, Winfrey’s stake of about 1.1 million shares made her the corporate’s largest particular person shareholder, with a stake of 1.43%.

Winfrey mentioned that she’s going to donate her curiosity in WeightWatchers to the Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition, a part of the Smithsonian Establishment in Washington. The corporate mentioned that it helps Winfrey’s choice to donate all of her stake to the museum throughout WeightWatchers upcoming buying and selling window in March.

“Ms. Winfrey is making the donation to help the NMAAHC’s aim to advertise and spotlight the contributions of African People and to eradicate any perceived battle of curiosity round her taking weight reduction drugs,” the corporate mentioned. “As well as, Ms. Winfrey intends to donate the proceeds from any future workouts of her WW inventory choices to NMAAHC.”

Practically a 12 months in the past, WeightWatchers mentioned it too was stepping into the prescription drug weight reduction enterprise with a $106 million deal to purchase Sequence, a telehealth supplier with annual income of about $25 million and about 24,000 members.