WW International, formerly known as Weightwatchers, deposited protection against the bankruptcy of Chapter 11 on Tuesday in Tuesday to reduce its debt after extremely popular obesity drugs have turned its commercial model upside down.
The actions of the company, which once boasted of the media magnate, Oprah Winfrey, as one of its main shareholders, fell 40% in prolonged exchanges on Tuesday after having announced its intention to file for bankruptcy as part of a reorganization plan with a group of its lenders.
Weightwatchers began as a weekly group support for weight loss with 400 participants and quickly turned into global phenomena with millions of members around the world.
But the growing popularity of GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy of Novo Nordisk and Wegovy and Zepbound of Eli Lilly on demand for its traditional weight loss programs.
Winfrey left the WW board of directors in February 2024 to eliminate “any conflict of interest perceived” after admitting having taken weight loss medication, the company said at the time.
About a year earlier, WW had acquired a remote party supplier to provide weight loss medication. But he reported a loss of $ 345.7 million last year, while his subscription income dropped 5.6% in annual shift.
WW said the reorganization plan would eliminate $ 1.15 billion from the company’s balance sheet. The company has accumulated substantial debt of around 1.6 billion US dollars.
The company estimated assets and liabilities of around 1 billion to $ 10 billion in the United States, according to the request for chapter 11 filed by the Delaware bankruptcy court.
After its brand change at WW International in 2018, the company was aimed at focusing on global well-being rather than weight loss.
The actions of the company fell 60% since the Wall Street Journal reported in April that the company was preparing to file for bankruptcy in the coming months.
