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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowWeightWatchers said Tuesday it is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to eliminate $1.15 billion in debt and focus on its transition into a telehealth services provider.
Parent WW International Inc. said it has the support of nearly three-quarters of its debt holders. It expects to emerge from bankruptcy within 45 days, if not sooner.
WeightWatchers, which was founded more than 60 years ago, has struggled recently. In 2023, the company moved into the prescription drug weight loss business—particularly with the $106 million acquisition of Sequence, now WeightWatchers Clinic, a telehealth service that helps users get prescriptions for drugs including Ozempic, Wegovy, Trulicity or Eli Lilly and Co.’s Zepbound.
Its latest earnings report Tuesday showed that first-quarter revenue declined 10% while its loss on an adjusted basis totaled 47 cents per share. However, clinical subscription revenue—or weight-loss medications—jumped 57% year over year, to $29.5 million.
In September, WW International CEO Sima Sistani resigned, and the New York company named Tara Comonte, a WeightWatchers board member and former Shake Shack executive, interim chief executive.
Comonte, now CEO, said in a statement Tuesday that, “As the conversation around weight shifts toward long-term health, our commitment to delivering the most trusted, science-backed, and holistic solutions—grounded in community support and lasting results—has never been stronger, or more important.”
Shares of the company have traded at under $1 since early February. In after-hours trading, the stock plunged by half, to 39 cents.
Founded in 1963 as a support group, WeightWatchers grew into one of the nation’s most popular weight-loss programs with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, hundreds of franchises and a line of retail food products.
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25 years ago, WW was just shifting to marketing their own products and it went from being a worthwhile program to a business. AND nobody wants to be trained/told they have to eat differently to loose weight.
Now that there are magic pills to peddle, they might be able to stay afloat.