Trading in WeWork Halted Amid Bankruptcy Rumors (apnews.com) 18
Trading in shares of WeWork were halted Monday as rumors swirl that the office sharing company, once valued as high as $47 billion, will seek bankruptcy protection. From a report: Last week, The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets reported that WeWork was planning to file for Chapter 11 bankrutpcy protection as early as this week -- citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. Shares of WeWork, which cost more than $400 two years ago, could be had Monday for less than $1.
The specter of bankruptcy has hovered over WeWork for some time. In August, the New York company sounded the alarm over its ability to remain in business. But cracks had begun to emerge several years ago. WeWork is paying the price for aggressive expansion in its early years. The company went public in October 2021 after its first attempt to do so two years earlier collapsed spectacularly. The debacle led to the ouster of founder and CEO Adam Neumann, whose erratic behavior and exorbitant spending spooked early investors.
The specter of bankruptcy has hovered over WeWork for some time. In August, the New York company sounded the alarm over its ability to remain in business. But cracks had begun to emerge several years ago. WeWork is paying the price for aggressive expansion in its early years. The company went public in October 2021 after its first attempt to do so two years earlier collapsed spectacularly. The debacle led to the ouster of founder and CEO Adam Neumann, whose erratic behavior and exorbitant spending spooked early investors.
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He was outsed a few years ago with a nice fat $400M+ settlement so unfortunately I imagine his smile (and ego) are still doing fine.
Re:Hope it wipes the smile off the idiot CEO's fac (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Hope it wipes the smile off the idiot CEO's fac (Score:5, Informative)
Softbank will soon be Softbankrupted (Score:3)
If they keep investing in grifter run corps like this.
Re:Softbank will soon be Softbankrupted (Score:5, Interesting)
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It has been on it's way for a while (Score:4, Interesting)
For the first year or so of the COVID lockdown I worked for a company that used WeWork offices. Any time I went into the building the vast majority of the offices were empty or were very sparsely populated.
No disruption... (Score:2)
Sure, there was Kombucha and beanbag chairs, but so what? Where was this huge untapped market "ripe for disruption?"
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Yes, it made no sense from the start, even with lots of people at the office. Generally though the market for this isn't huge, it's generally for remote workers where they don't want to have their own building away from the home office, so it's the local sales and support team perhaps, leasing half a floor. Possibly the market segment were the come-and-quickly-vanish startups, grab some profits from gullible venture capitalists along the way. Ie, a market for customers that are too small to lease their own
Another Victim of Work From Home (Score:2)
Re:Another Victim of Work From Home (Score:4, Informative)
It seems WeWork's problems are of its own making. Other coworking companies are doing quite well, thank you.
https://www.axios.com/2023/08/... [axios.com]
If anything, work-from-home would be expected to *increase* the need for short-term rentals of things like conference rooms, for those occasional meetings where companies want to meet in person.
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The story I heard is that WeWork got a lot of venture capital, and worked on the "we'll get customers first, then figure out profitability" model that other startups were using.
They managed to get a huge amount of venture capital - billions of dollars. And used that to overbid on properties and give discounts to their customers.
Just another sta
WeWork's troubles are self-inflicted (Score:3)
WeWork may be struggling, but the coworking sector seems to be doing well overall.
https://www.axios.com/2023/08/... [axios.com]
This is in keeping with what one would expect, as WFH companies might still want an occasional conference room, and would likely consider using coworking spaces.
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WeWork may be struggling, but the coworking sector seems to be doing well overall.
https://www.axios.com/2023/08/... [axios.com]
This is in keeping with what one would expect, as WFH companies might still want an occasional conference room, and would likely consider using coworking spaces.
That makes sense, co-working is a solid concept, co-working at scale (bunch of offices around the world) is an interesting concept, though I'm not sold, co-working at scale with an insane frat boy as CEO is a really bad concept.
Useless Company Goes Under (Score:2)
What's WeWork? Is that the Chinese spyware app?
Seriously, who cares. "Office design provider," more like "I have to spend the rest of my budget ASAP" consultants.
Now that budgets are contracting, nobody wants to pay them for useless services.