Guthy-Renker ( ) is a California-based direct-response marketing company that sells health and beauty products directly to consumers through infomercials, television ads, direct mail, telemarketing, e-mail marketing, and the Internet. Many of its products are endorsed by celebrities including actresses and musicians The company started marketing self-help products endorsed by Fran Tarkenton and motivational speaker Tony Robbins, previous products also included exercise equipment such as a pilates program, called the 'Malibu Pilates system, endorsed by actress Susan Lucci and Instant Abs by model Heidi Klum Guthy-Renker was founded in November 1988 by Bill Guthy and Greg Renker. In 1995, it began distributing the acne treatment program Proactiv, which became responsible for more than half its revenues by 2005. The company also created seven subsidiaries in the late 1990s for different products and advertising channels. In 1996, it founded infomercial channel, GRTV, which was sold to TVN Entertainment Corporation in 1999. Guthy-Renker's revenues grew from $400 million in 2001 to $1.5 billion by 2009. It formed a joint venture with Nestlé Skin Health in 2016. History Guthy-Renker was founded in November 1988 by Bill Guthy and Greg Renker. They met at the Indian Wells Racquet Club and Resort in Indian Wells, California. They considered starting an infomercial company after an order was placed at Guthy's cassette duplication company, Cassette Productions Unlimited, for 50,000 copies of a real estate lecture to be sold through infomercials. At the time many infomercials mimicked talk shows and investigative news specials, raising concerns among consumers and policy makers that the programs were misleading. To avoid the controversial practice, Guthy-Renker disclosed that their infomercials were paid advertisements at the beginning of each program. It made professional-quality productions. Renker was invited to testify to a Congressional subcommittee in 1990 regarding ethics in advertising, which led Guthy-Renker and others to form the National Infomercial Marketing Association to create industry standards. The following year, the firm had to cut back operations, because news coverage of the Persian Gulf War drew viewers away from infomercials. Ron Perelman of Forbes Holdings Inc. bought a 37.5 percent share of Guthy-Renker in 1993 in exchange for $25 million and priority access to air-time on Perelman's television stations. At the time, Guthy-Renker had grown to $60 million in revenue. In 1996, Perelman's stake in the company was resold to News Corp and Guthy-Renker bought it back. Two years later, Goldman Sachs bought a stake in