Shareholder Value Destruction Following Tiger Wood’s Self Destruction

Two UC Davis Economics Professors have put a number on the economic impact of Tiger Woods infidelity. From their paper’s abstract:

We estimate that in the days beginning with Tiger Woods’ recent car accident and ending with his announced indenite leave” from golf, shareholders of companies that Mr. Woods endorses lost $5-14 billion in wealth. We measure the losses relative to both the entire stock market and a set of competitor rms. Because most of the rms that Mr. Woods endorses are either large or owned by large parent companies, the losses are extremely widespread. Mr. Woods’ top ve sponsors (Accenture, Nike, Gillette, Electronic Arts and Gatorade) lost 2-3 percent of their aggregate market value after the accident, and his core sports-related sponsors EA, Nike and PepsiCo (Gatorade) lost over four percent. The pace of losses slowed by December 11, the date on which Mr. Woods announced his leave from golf, but as late as December 17 shareholders had not recovered their losses.

What the paper really points out is the folly of any organization betting its reputation and assets on any one individual. The PGA Tour should stand up and take notice. The one thing the Tour really needs to do this year is work incessantly to promote some of the other players.