OpTree

XanGo - a world leader in the production and sales of Mangosteen fruit juice - is setting their sights on the skin care world. While XanGo has seen a huge amount of success with their nutritional juice over the last 5 years, the public is hungry for new ways to utilize the benefits of the mangosteen fruit, and XanGo wants to give it to them.

XanGo (OpTree Profile) has now announced that they will expand into the skin care world. In the fall of 2008, XanGo will introduce a new skin care line called Glimpse. The skin care system will take advantage of the naturally occurring vitamins and nutrients found in the mangosteen fruit as well as harnessing the power of all natural ingredients that come directly from the earth.

While details are a bit vague as to exactly what the line will consist of, what we do know is that XanGo will use their patented xanthone formula to create an intense skin care system that they say will be a sort of diet for optimal skin health. We will keep you updated as we receive more details.

This should be an exciting launch for the company. They have over a million distributors in their downline who have made themselves and the company an enormous amount of money off only one product. It will be interesting to see if the public will be receptive to the mangosteen in another form.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Mannatech announced that one of their own Team Mannatech members, Nancy Lieberman, has just signed a contract to play temporarily for the Detroit Shock. What makes this news even more unbelievable is that Lieberman is 50 years old.

The Shock asked Lieberman to play for a seven day stretch when Cheryl Ford was forced to sit out with an injury. Lieberman is officially the oldest woman to play professional basketball in the WNBA.

Lieberman has been using Mannatech products as part of her training regime for over 12 years. She was first introduced to the company and its supplements when she attempted a comeback at the age of 38. Former NBA all-star Otis Birdsong recommended the products when Lieberman came to him for advice. Lieberman was shocked at how well the products worked and how they made her feel. While that comeback attempt was not successful, Lieberman was convinced of the effectiveness of the Mannatech products and has been a spokesperson for the company ever since.

“In 1997, when I was trying to come back to basketball at the tender age of 38, no one thought I could do it,” Lieberman said. “Using Mannatech products, I was able to improve my performance and become a successful player in the WNBA. Today, I’m the only woman in the WNBA who is playing professional basketball at age 50 and I enjoy telling my players, friends and family about the success I’ve had with Mannatech products.”

Lieberman is an Olympic medalist, three time college All-American and a member of both the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. She was previously known as “Lady Magic” during her college career. Today Lieberman does commentary for ESPN and is also one of 163 athletes who make up the Team Mannatech Athletic squad. The Teams goal is to promote and spread the word on the benefits of adding the Mannatech products to a training program. All Mannatech products are free of harmful chemicals and all have been approved by the World Anti Doping Agency.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Pureworks - a company that makes a complete line of hand, body and home sanitizer products - has just announced that they will complete a merger with Youngevity which will go into effect sometime in August. Youngevity has a complete line of health and wellness products, offering over 250 products through a network of independent distributors.

Pureworks president Mark Franks made the announcement last week. Youngevity has been around for 5 years, and while they have over 250 health care products available, they do not currently have a hand sanitizer. That is, until now.

Pureworks, which was founded in 2002, will be a great addition to the Youngevity family. Pureworks currently holds a patent for their specially formulated hand sanitizer. The hand sanitizer contains Benzethonium Chloride which is a positively charged formula that does not get absorbed into the skin. Instead, it covers the skin and forms a sort of barrier that can provide protection for hours. Pureworks says that their product is 100% percent effective against a large variety of bacteria, and Benzethonium Chloride has even been shown to be extremely effective in killing viral germs.

Along with hand sanitizer, Pureworks will also bring several other products into the partnership including anti-bacterial lotions, sprays and foams, body soaps, and hard surface sanitizers.

This will be a great opportunity for both sides. For Pureworks, it will increase the distribution potential of their products by utilizing the independent consultants already working for Youngevity, and for Youngevity, it is a great addition to their already impressive line of products.

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We have been covering the whole USANA saga to go private and Wentz and co. offering first $26 to take the company private and then upping their offer to $28 before getting completely rejected...twice.

Well what is most interesting is how Wall Street has reacted to the news to abandon talks to go private and the settlement with Barry Minkow. In literally a week, USANA’s stock (NASDAQ: USNA) has seen a huge jump from $28 (Wentz and co. last bid) to a close of $38.15 today - a 38% increase!

For those that may or may not follow MLM public companies, it is very rare to see such growth in a short period of time. No question that all of the news the company has been able to put behind them has helped but another theory comes to mind and that is Wentz had absolutely nothing to lose if his bid was rejected and everything to gain.

For one, USANA got a lot of free publicity out of the talks which gave them greater exposure to trading desks around the country and world. The other key component as we had pointed out since Wentz is the largest shareholder, the rejection by the independent counsel which was hired to review the offer (and later rejected as being far too low) only showed that Went’z stock was undervalued to begin with and people should start buying it up. GENIUS!

So where does that leave Wentz and Gull Holdings today? Combined they own over 16m shares which means they have made (on paper) roughly $160 Million in a week! Not a bad return for making a low-ball offer on your own company huh?

Whether this was planned from the start or is a product of the outcome, I give a lot of credit to Wentz and Gull for the results. It was a brilliant plan that was executed almost flawlessly with incredible results. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that Minkow is now out of the picture as well.

Popularity: 3% [?]