Oprah's Weight Watchers Windfall
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A story about one of the most successful private equity deals ever, involving Weight Watchers and Oprah Winfrey.
"In 2015, this guy from a relatively small private equity firm convinced Oprah to join Weight Watchers and acquire a 10% stake. Since then, the company's stock soared by almost 600%. They sold $1 billion of Weight Watchers stock, and Oprah gained at least $400 million.
It will go down as one of the best private equity deals ever. Over 19 years, they put $226 million into Weight Watchers and got $5.37 billion out - $4.7 billion in realized profits. And that's not including the stock they still own."
The deal was particularly impressive because they managed to get Oprah involved at peak Oprah (2015), which transformed the company's trajectory.
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.