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Troubles Mount for the We Company as Softbank Reportedly Calls for Shelving IPO

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Re: Troubles Mount for the We Company as Softbank Reportedly Calls for Shelving IPO

#4
We're going to look back on this company and say to ourselves "why did we fund a company to sign rental agreements".

I jest, but WeWork is one of those strange entities that's greater than the sum of its parts. If the magic goes or the brand tarnishes a little, then the whole thing goes poof.

Re: Troubles Mount for the We Company as Softbank Reportedly Calls for Shelving IPO

#5

Buying that stock would be akin to donating to a "Help Adam Neumann Buy Real Estate" GoFundMe campaign.

He at least had the good sense to "allow" them to use "his" WE trademark without having to pay the $15M annual fee anymore!

Re: Troubles Mount for the We Company as Softbank Reportedly Calls for Shelving IPO

#7

Buying that stock would be akin to donating to a "Help Adam Neumann Buy Real Estate" GoFundMe campaign.

He at least had the good sense to "allow" them to use "his" WE trademark without having to pay the $15M annual fee anymore!

Was it an annual fee?

Its seems like it was a 1 off payment of 'only' $5.9 million

https://www.businessinsider.com/wework-ceo-gives-back-millio...

Re: Troubles Mount for the We Company as Softbank Reportedly Calls for Shelving IPO

#8
We must be pretty important for Softbank as a signal - even if they didn't believe in the company, allowing such a major investment take such a big hit would be rather bad. Worth them pouring a few $bn more in instead of an IPO, if only to shore up faith in the rest of their portfolio?

All that being said, someone needs to be mentoring the CEO, like right now. That S1 was... not... great.

Re: Troubles Mount for the We Company as Softbank Reportedly Calls for Shelving IPO

#9

It’s been quite hilarious for me watching this saga unfold. All I needed to hear was that this man literally took out loans from WeWork and used the proceeds of the loans to purchase real estate that he then leased back to WeWork. Lol!

And sold the rights to 'We' for like $5mil in stock...to the company he founded. Matt Levine has had a great time ripping him apart for this.

Re: Troubles Mount for the We Company as Softbank Reportedly Calls for Shelving IPO

#10

We must be pretty important for Softbank as a signal - even if they didn't believe in the company, allowing such a major investment take such a big hit would be rather bad. Worth them pouring a few $bn more in instead of an IPO, if only to shore up faith in the rest of their portfolio? All that being said, someone needs to be mentoring the CEO, like right now. That S1 was... not... great.

Not a fan of "Community adjusted" EBITDA I take it?
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