(Bloomberg) -- WW International Inc. ousted Chief Executive Officer Sima Sistani after a tumultuous two-and-a-half year tenure at the diet company.
Her exit is the latest in a string of high-profile departures amid plunging shares at the company, also known as WeightWatchers. Board member Tara Comonte will immediately assume the role of interim CEO, according to a statement Friday.
WW struggled with its identity as customers shunned diet culture, and weight-loss shots emerged as a potent tool for those seeking to shed pounds. The company is now selling the medications from Novo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly & Co., but that has yet to fix its financial problems.
Sistani was named CEO in 2022 as WeightWatchers was struggling to stay relevant in the rapidly changing industry. A Silicon Valley veteran who made a name for herself selling the video-chat app Houseparty, she was tasked with ushering the company into a new era.
The move has yet to pay off: WeightWatchers’ stock has lost 90% of its value this year and the company has a market value of less than $68 million. Much of that decline came after Oprah Winfrey, the face of the company for nearly a decade, said she was leaving the board in February.
Shares were down more than 4% at 10:18 a.m. in New York on Friday, paring earlier gains.
In August, WeightWatchers said it was laying off employees and looking for other ways to cut costs. The business has been in a steady decline since 2019, when the Covid-19 pandemic dramatically reduced subscribers to its in-person meetings and its once-growing online offering plateaued.
Revenue for the past 12 months was down almost 12% to $829.4 million through June from the same period a year earlier.
(Updates with additional details in sixth and seventh paragraphs.)
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.