Oprah Winfrey has sold 95% of her Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) shares to Discovery Inc. for more than $36 million in stock.
According to Bloomberg, The OWN content is expected to be part of a new streaming service, Discovery+, which is launching next month. In 2017, Discovery purchased a 25% stake from Winfrey for $70 million, but the publication suspects that the value of Winfrey’s company has declined… prompting the surprise sale.
Winfrey will retain on to her CEO and chief creative officer positions, but the move essentially delegates her to employee status.
Winfrey has been a pioneer in the entertainment industry for decades.
“I don’t think I’ve ever gotten starstruck. I tend to live like we are all the same, because we are,” she said in an interview with Reader’s Digest.
“In my career, what I’ve always tried my best to do—whether on television or through film—is say something about how men and women really behave,” said the star in her Golden Globes acceptance speech. “It’s to say how we experience shame, how we love and how we rage, how we fail, how we retreat, persevere, and how we overcome. I’ve interviewed and portrayed people who’ve withstood some of the ugliest things life can throw at them, but the one quality all of them seem to share is an ability to maintain hope for a brighter morning, even during our darkest nights.”
No doubt, the media maven has some more magic up her sleeve for 2021. We look forward to seeing what she has in store for us.
