Oprah Winfrey makes $70M in one day

On Monday morning, Weight Watchers International, a company centered on dieting which helps dieters loose weight,

Oprah

with a stock that has been sinking for years, announced that Oprah Winfrey was joining the company’s board of directors and becoming one of the largest shareholders of the diet company.

The news caused Weight Watchers’ stock to double in a single day of trading. The stock, which closed at $6.79 on Friday, last changed hands for $13.92 on Monday afternoon. As a result, Winfrey made $71.6 million in paper gains on Monday.

According to a Securities & Exchange Commission filing, Weight Watchers has agreed to sell 6.36 million shares to Winfrey for $6.79 each, or $43.2 million. In addition, the company granted Winfrey an option to purchase another 3.5 million shares for $6.79 each

Winfrey’s stock deal is part of a general collaboration agreement she has struck with Weight Watchers to promote the company and its programs for five years.

“Weight Watchers has given me the tools to begin to make the lasting shift that I and so many of us who are struggling with weight have longed for,” Winfrey said in a statement. “I believe in the program so much I decided to invest in the company and partner in its evolution.”

Winfrey, who is worth an estimated $3 billion, is partnering with a secretive private equity mogul named Ray Debbane, who is based in New York and has controlled Weight Watchers since 1999, when the Manhattan investment firm he manages bought Weight Watchers in a leveraged buyout. Debbane’s Invus Group, which manages money for a few wealthy European families, has made at least $3.8 billion off of Weight Watchers over the years by selling the company’s stock and assets, and collecting dividends.

 

While Winfrey is a huge winner from the announcement, she's not the biggest. Half of the company's stock, or 29.4 million shares, is owned by private investment firm Artal. That translates into a $209.9 million gain for the day..But this formula has not been working in recent years. Clearly, Debbane thinks a partnership with Winfrey could reinvigorate the brand.“Weight Watchers and Oprah Winfrey make a powerful combination,” Debbane said in a statement on Monday. “Oprah is a force of nature.”