It is only appropriate that Oprah, the “Queen of Media” be as influential on social media as she is on TV. Seeing that a single tweet from the billionaire posted recently about her weight loss using the weight watchers diet sent the company’s share price soaring and in turn made her $12.5 million richer, she has well lived up to her name.
Adhering to strict dieting rules appears to be a big problem for overweight people, yes! they want to lose weight but it can be quite difficult to ignore the cravings for foods with caloric content. So if your craving includes bread, then there is good news according to Oprah.
Oprah took to Twitter to announce to her over 30 million tweeps that she has lost 26 pounds using the weight watchers diet despite eating bread every single day. How convenient is that? The tweet accompanied by a 32-second video read; Eat Bread. Lose Weight. Whaaatttt? #ComeJoinMe.
While this may be an exciting news for bread lovers who want to shed some weight, it is even more exciting for the value of Weight Watchers International and Oprah’s pocket considering she’s a part owner, adviser and member of the company’s board. Just hours after the tweet was published, the share price of the company upped by 21%, selling at over $13 at the close of trading day. This increased the market capitalization of the company to $150 million and increased the billionaires share profit to $12.5 million. Even more, when you add her additional 3.5 million shares- 5% in Weight Watchers stock options then her total profit would be $19.2 million in a single day. As per the math, that means about $5 million per hour.
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But this isn’t the first or second time the “Oprah effect” is visible in the company whose financial struggle has relatively reduced since the billionaire’s arrival. Barely 4 months ago in October 2015, Oprah announced that she had just purchased part of the company for $43 million and immediately the share price of the company upped by over 100%, that meant Oprah had just made $75 million on paper. She bought 6 million shares for $6.79 per share. Again in December, Oprah posted a commercial for the company featuring herself and again the share price increased by 20%, but sadly, it didn’t last long.
The financial fluctuations faced by the dieting company for some years now is due to numerous competitions from free diet apps and online fitness trainers, including the likes of the Instagram fitness models whose paychecks reveal that a lot of people are subscribing to their services.
On the bright side Oprah seems determined to make sure the company doesn’t fail, in her words to time she said;
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, I believe in the program so much I decided to invest in the company and partner in its evolution.
How long Oprah continues to serve as Weight Watchers white knight can only be revealed by time.