Weight Watcher's 9-city Oprah-palooza

Might as well call it Diet-Chella... Weight Watchers isn't counting calories when it comes to investing in big names to rep its brand. Shares rose on word WW (the ‘90s health throwback rebranded from "Weight Watchers") extended its partnership with Oprah through 2025. Check out the resumés of WW stock and Oprah:

• Oprah: In 2015 the TV legend became a board member, advisor, and the 2nd largest shareholder, owning 8% of the company.
• Weight Watchers stock: Shares had fallen 90% in the 4 years prior to signing Oprah, but are up 500% in the 4 years after Oprah. We call this year "4 AO."

How do you beat bread-hating Keto diets?... Schedule a nationwide 9-city tour from January to March packed with Oprah. It's called "Oprah's 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus," and it's WW's most strategic Oprah move — she interviews celebs like Lady Gaga, The Rock, Michelle Obama, and Tina Fey about their health journeys. Paleo can’t fill an arena like Oprah can.

First comes puberty, then comes paying rent... Tech follows a similar path — Growth 1st, profits 2nd. Facebook focused its first 5 years on growth, and only started selling ads in 2012. Amazon Alexa grew in its first years to reach 100M Alexa-enabled devices worldwide, selling Echos and Alexa software for near nothing. Now it's time for Part 2: Make money.

10K Amazonians are on Team Alexa... According to reporting from The Information, ten-thousand employees must now figure out how to squeeze $$$ out of your awkward Alexa commands — because the voice assistant only brought in $1.4M in revenues for Amazon this year (that's a measly $140 per employee). Here are some of Amazon's ideas:

• Premium content?: If you order Spotify through Alexa, could Amazon take a cut of that subscription?
• Premium skills?: If you ask Alexa to "translate Spanish homework," could Amazon charge your parents for that feature?
• "Hey, famous person": This one's already happening — Alexa can adopt the voice of Samuel L. Jackson for 99 cents. More A-list celebs coming soon for $5.

• Stalled: Uber dodges a legal bullet after a judge decides (for now) not to force its California drivers to be treated like employees
• Club: Coca-Cola is launching "Insiders Club," a subscription service (real original) to try out new dranks before they're on shelves
• Insta-Face: How social media, editing, and cosmetic surgery have created a single, cyborgian face that has taken over Instagram
• Bad Taste: Starbucks apologizes to California deputies who were ignored and refused service at its store (the 3rd anti-police incident it's had this year)
• Accelerate: Lime whips up a separate subscription for its scooter power users so you'll finally stay loyal
• Flix Abroad: Netflix breaks down its "international" category of subscribers into more specific regions for first time — Europe, the Middle East, and Asia has more than doubled since 2017

• The US House of Representatives makes an historic impeachment vote
• Earnings from PayChex, General Mills, and Micron

Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Amazon

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