WeightWatchers reportedly prepping for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Driving the news: WW International — the company's corporate name — is "preparing to file for bankruptcy in the coming months as part of a plan to hand control of the business to its creditors," the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

• The company could still restructure its debt outside of court, but Chapter 11 bankruptcy "is more realistic" as it aims to stay in business, according to WSJ.

The big picture: WeightWatchers has been trying to reinvent itself for years, having shifted its emphasis to wellness in the late 2010s and then more recently embraced weight-loss drugs.

• The company in 2023 ended many of the in-person meetings it popularized decades ago as part of a broader cost-cutting plan, irking faithful members.
• Around the same time, it acquired telehealth platform Sequence, where people can get prescriptions to the popular new class of GLP-1 anti-obesity drugs.
• Then in 2024, longtime WeightWatchers investor and booster Oprah Winfrey left the company's board.

By the numbers: WeightWatchers has posted six straight full-year revenue declines and three straight nine-digit net losses.

• The company's 2024 revenue of $786 million was more than a billion less than its all-time high of $1.84 billion in 2012.

• Its losses have totaled more than $700 million over the last three years.

Former CEO Sima Sistani — who guided WeightWatchers to embrace weight-loss drugs and apologized for the company's past emphasis on personal responsibility — left in a sudden shakeup in September.

• Board member Tara Comonte — who previously served as president of burger chain Shake Shack — took over as interim CEO and then got the permanent job in February.

What they're saying: WeightWatchers representatives did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment.