WW Worldwide, previously often called WeightWatchers, has filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety on Tuesday in a bid to chop its debt after Ozempic and different vastly well-liked weight problems medicine upended its enterprise mannequin.
Shares of the corporate, which as soon as boasted of media mogul Oprah Winfrey as one among its prime shareholders, slumped 40% in prolonged buying and selling after saying plans to file for chapter as a part of a reorganization plan with a gaggle of its lenders.
WeightWatchers started as weekly weight-loss help group assembly with 400 attendees, and shortly was a worldwide phenomena with tens of millions of members throughout the globe.
However the rising reputation of GLP-1 medicine comparable to Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound hit demand for its conventional weight-loss applications.
It additionally acquired a telehealth supplier to supply weight-loss medicine in 2023, however reported a lack of $345.7 million final yr, whereas its subscription revenues fell 5.6% year-over-year.
WW stated the reorganization plan will eradicate $1.15 billion in debt from the corporate’s stability sheet. The corporate has gathered substantial debt of round $1.6 billion.
The corporate has estimated belongings and liabilities within the vary of $1 billion to $10 billion, based on the Chapter 11 petition filed in Delaware chapter court docket.
After its rebranding to WW Worldwide in 2018, the corporate aimed to concentrate on total wellness reasonably than simply weight loss.
The corporate’s shares have slumped 60% for the reason that Wall Avenue Journal first reported in April that the corporate was getting ready to file for chapter within the coming months.
