WeWork, the office-sharing giant valued at $47 billion in 2019, files for bankruptcy

[midian182]

What just happened? WeWork, the office space-sharing giant that was valued at $47 billion in 2019, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New Jersey Federal court. The company warned that its future was in substantial doubt earlier this year, and there were reports last month that a bankruptcy filing was expected.

WeWork's bankruptcy filing is limited to the company's US and Canada locations. The company, which reported liabilities ranging from $10 billion to $50 billion, said it had reached restructuring agreements with creditors holding 92% of its debt.

While WeWork said its spaces remain open and operational, it plans to further rationalize its commercial office lease portfolio during the restructuring period.

WeWork said in August that it would be focusing on reducing rental costs, negotiating more favorable leases, increasing revenue, limiting capital expenditure, and raising capital in an effort to avoid bankruptcy.

WeWork was once valued at $47 billion by Japanese owner SoftBank, but things started to turn sour in 2019 when an IPO was canceled mostly due to internal turmoil brought on by the misconduct accusations against co-founder and ex-CEO Adam Neumann. Its value dropped to $7.8 billion just a few months later.

WeWork's stock price over the last 12 months

Few businesses were hit as hard by the pandemic as WeWork, given how the lockdowns forced much of the world to work from home. The company had shown some signs of recovery early this year, but it appeared to be a case of too little, too late. It has lost almost 98% of its stock valuation in the last 12 months, while shares, which had been as low as 10 cents, were trading at 83 cents before the stock was halted on Monday.

As of June 30, WeWork had 777 locations covering millions of square feet of office space across 39 countries.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that since its founding, WeWork had amassed $16 billion in losses as of June 2023. It was also paying $2.7 billion per year in rent and interest, the equivalent of over 80% of the company's entire revenue.

"It has been challenging for me to watch from the sidelines since 2019 as WeWork has failed to take advantage of a product that is more relevant today than ever before," Neumann said in a press release. "I believe that, with the right strategy and team, a reorganization will enable WeWork to emerge successfully."

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https://www.techspot.com/news/100758-office-sharing-giant-wework-valued-47-billion-2019.html

 

[VaRmeNsI]

Lockdown policies killed WeWork along with a whole load of other businesses.

 

[PEnnn]

Lockdown policies killed WeWork along with a whole load of other businesses.

Yeah, let people die instead, so businesses don't suffer.

It's not like WeWork became too big for its own good, became too greedy and overextended itself. Nah, keeping people safe killed this amazing company.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

Yeah, let people die instead, so businesses don't suffer.

It's not like WeWork became too big for its own good, became too greedy and overextended itself. Nah, keeping people safe killed this amazing company.

You may not be aware but poverty kills considerably more people per year.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Lockdown policies killed WeWork along with a whole load of other businesses.

It only accelerated the death. WeWork was having financial issues years before covid. The business model was totally unsustainable, like most "gig" work.

Yeah, let people die instead, so businesses don't suffer.

It's not like WeWork became too big for its own good, became too greedy and overextended itself. Nah, keeping people safe killed this amazing company.

The vast majority who died from covid were already medically fragile from abusing their body for decades. We've only been telling people that being fat and sedentary is bad for the last 40 years. As sweeden showed, lockdowns did F all to stop this process.

 

[human7]

WeWork was once valued at $47 billion by Japanese owner SoftBank, but things started to turn sour in 2019 when an IPO was canceled mostly due to internal turmoil brought on by the misconduct accusations against co-founder and ex-CEO Adam Neumann. Its value dropped to $7.8 billion just a few months later.

You can tell which companies are actually worth their salt (or at least, which ones are not) when all it takes for their valuation to drop precipitously is something like this. So much of the valuation is based on "can the (potential) stock make investors happy" and not "is the company actually worth this".

 

[saladbarsmash]

Yeah, let people die instead, so businesses don't suffer.

It's not like WeWork became too big for its own good, became too greedy and overextended itself. Nah, keeping people safe killed this amazing company.

OK lol, the lockdowns killed more people and destroyed more lives than not having the lockdown to begin with. Millions died from lack of preventative care, heart attacks, and other diseases that they lost access to because of the lockdowns. Keep believing the BS narrative you're told sheep.