Description
WeWork is an American commercial real estate company that provides shared workspaces for technology startups and services for other enterprises. Founded in 2010, it is headquartered in New York City. As of 2018, WeWork managed over 4 million square metres. WeWork's parent company is The We Company.
WeWork designs and builds physical and virtual shared spaces and office services for entrepreneurs and companies. At one time, WeWork had more than 5,000 employees in over 280 locations, spread across 86 cities in 32 countries. In January 2019, the firm announced it would be rebranding to The We Company, and its valuation was stated as $47 billion. The Wall Street Journal noted that upon the release of its public prospectus in August 2019, the company was "besieged with criticism over its governance, business model, and ability to turn a profit." WeWork lost over $2 billion in 2018.
In September 2019, following mounting pressure from investors based on disclosures WeWork had made in its S-1 filing in preparation for a stock market listing (IPO), company co-founder Adam Neumann resigned from his position as CEO and gave up majority voting control in WeWork. Amid growing investor concerns over its corporate governance, valuation, and outlook for the business, WeWork also formally withdrew its S-1 filing and announced the postponing of its IPO. At that time, the reported public valuation of the company was around $10 billion, less than the $12.8 billion it had raised since 2010. In October 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported that Neumann would receive close to $1.7 billion from stakeholder SoftBank for stepping down from WeWork's board and severing most of his ties to the company. According to an employee group called WeWorkers Coalition, he was retained as a consultant with an annual salary of $46 million. The New York Times called the company's failed effort to go public and related turmoil, "an implosion unlike any other in the history of start-ups", which it attributed to Neumann's questionable tenure and the easy money previously provided to him by SoftBank, led by Masayoshi Son.
