Almost two years after WeWork imploded before the initial planned public offering, the office-sharing startup finally becomes public.
Friday, WeWork announced a merger with special purpose procurement company BowX Acquisition Corp. The transaction values WeWork at $ 9 billion, far from ridiculous inflation $ 47 billion was evaluated at the beginning of his wrong IPO. WeWork, a real estate company with a wild history which rents collaborative workspace for technology startups, has opted to delay publication in 2019 amid revelations about wild mismanagement and rising debt. Between 2016 and 2019, the company registered losses of about $ 4 billion (Hey, having Turn on the tap it’s not cheap, you know).
After that, then WeWork co-founder and CEO Adam Neumann, who drew investors’ attention after the withdrawal over $ 700 million in stock options shortly before the planned IPO, he agreed to resign, thousands of employees they lost their jobs and the Securities and Exchange Commission launched an investigation in disaster.
But now the besieged startup says those days are behind it.
“WeWork spent the past year transforming the business and reorienting its core, simultaneously managing and innovating through a historic recession,” CEO Sandeep Mathrani wrote in a blog post Friday. “Therefore, WeWork has emerged as a global leader in flexible space, with a value proposition that is stronger than ever.”
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WeWork and BowX are negotiating a potential merger in January, reports the Wall Street Journal. According to the transaction, WeWork will receive approximately $ 1.3 billion, including $ 800 million in a private investment from Insight Partners, as well as funds managed by Starwood Capital Group and Fidelity Management, among others. The merger is expected to close in the coming months, WeWork said.
Like many companies, WeWork has struggled to stay afloat in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, because, you know, it’s kind of hard to sell people into a physical coworking space when there’s a deadly transmissible virus. The company failed to pay rent for some of its locations in April after widespread blockages, Bloomberg reported then.
However, with the world slow reopening companies looking for flexible office space models now more than ever, Bloomberg predicts that this could be WeWork’s chance to shine. And the company’s increases agree.
“The pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we work, and WeWork is incredibly well positioned to move into a future driven by digital technology and a new appreciation of the value of flexible workspace,” Executive President Marcelo Claure said in a post. Friday’s blog.