Sorry, but this is hilarious. No schadenfreude lost here.
WeWork says will file to withdraw IPO
311–320 of 404 posts
Re: WeWork says will file to withdraw IPO
#312Earlier quoted context omitted.
> ..probably because he was never truly invested in/familiar with/cared that much about new technology and what people promise it can do. Where's the technology in WeWork?
It's a cornerstone of their brand relative to other office space leasing companies, and tech investors are how/where they got a lot of their funding. Check out their S-1, they mention "technology" 110 times: "Technology is at the foundation of our global platform. Our purpose-built technology and operational expertise has allowed us to scale our core WeWork space-as-a-service offering quickly, while improving the qua…
1000 engineers for what? Again, where is the technology?
Re: WeWork says will file to withdraw IPO
#313This is almost too perfect but SoftBank is, at the moment, trying to hire a valuations director: https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=cf0378114e63aeb4&from=tp-s... Sort of a "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity" kind of thing . . .
Alternatively, never be too quick to attribute to stupidity when there’s a strong incentive for malice to take advantage of that attribution to hide itself.
Alternatively, never attribute to malice or stupidity what can easily be attributed to greed and lack of incentive.
Re: WeWork says will file to withdraw IPO
#314Re: WeWork says will file to withdraw IPO
#315Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the reason you don't get an answer to this is because this is article number 100352752. WeWork isn't a tech company because there's no unique technology they use to rent out office space- which is how they make money. Their business model is "Sign long term contracts cheap, rent out to short term tenants expensive". Which is fine, but it doesn't justify their valuation (which is predicated on them 'disrupting…
Isn't airbnb similarly disqualified under your definition?
A big difference is that AirBnB (and Uber, Lyft, etc...) don’t own or lease any of the underlying assets (apartments, cars) but are purely middlemen.
Re: WeWork says will file to withdraw IPO
#316Earlier quoted context omitted.
> ..probably because he was never truly invested in/familiar with/cared that much about new technology and what people promise it can do. Where's the technology in WeWork?
It's a cornerstone of their brand relative to other office space leasing companies, and tech investors are how/where they got a lot of their funding. Check out their S-1, they mention "technology" 110 times: "Technology is at the foundation of our global platform. Our purpose-built technology and operational expertise has allowed us to scale our core WeWork space-as-a-service offering quickly, while improving the qua…
It’s “tech theatre,” not tech. It’s how they got their funding, but reading what even the happy users on HN have had to say, the technology isn’t core to why people rent from them.
Re: WeWork says will file to withdraw IPO
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even simpler: it's fraud and they got caught. Hopefully it doesn't paint other great IPOs in a bad light.
In order for something to be fraud there has to be deception. This was never the case with WeWork.
Whether there was deception and therefore fraud will likely be determined in a court of law, by a jury.
Re: WeWork says will file to withdraw IPO
#318Why is WeWork considered a tech company? And what exactly is wrong with their business model? That's not clear to me from the article. It says they take long-term leases and sell short-term leases. That seems straightforward and potentially lucrative if they're adding value, making it easier to find suitable short-term office space, etc. Is it just that they're not making money doing this? Why not?
> It says they take long-term leases and sell short-term leases. That seems straightforward and potentially lucrative if they're adding value, making it easier to find suitable short-term office space, etc. When times get tough the startups go back to their parent's garages or basements and don't renew their short term leases. WeWork is stuck with their long-term leases.
Conversely while times are good startups are willing to pay premium for short term leases, either to expand quickly if times stay good or to go back to some garage if times get tough. The business model is essentialy similar to an insurance, they make money by taking on other people's risks.
Of course WeWork doesn't operate financially like this. The business model is sound in principle, but WeWork's execution seems ill conceived (except for the personal enrichment of the CEO).
Re: WeWork says will file to withdraw IPO
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
This gets called "being disruptive" but it's possible to be disruptive without ignoring the law. For example see SpaceX: successful disruption of the launch industry, without breaking any laws. The issue is that not every industry is so inefficient as to be possible to legally disrupt profitably, so people try to do an end-run around the law.
The CEO of SpaceX did commit a couple crimes in the same podcast. Uber's autonomous car fatally collided with a woman, raising questions of negligence and liability in automation. Uber acquired some of Alphabet/Waymo's trade secrets when they aqui-hired one of their former engineers who apparently kept a bunch of Waymo's IP he worked on. That engineer himself is now facing a federal indictment, and Uber and Waymo hav…
Riding without a helmet and similar stuff is likely just a contravention in most places.
Re: WeWork says will file to withdraw IPO
#320Cannot understand how they can restructure this. Even one new building in London which isn't anywhere near structurally complete WeWork has taken 18 floors on a 25 year lease (I think due to open 2020 or 2021). Is there a way they can walk away from all these commitments? I understand they have a SPE structure which potentially allows them to do that, but I imagine there must be some costs or downsides to it, otherwi…
I thought companies walk away from leases all the time. Every restaurant you’ve ever eaten at the is no longer there probably bailed on a lease.
Bankruptcy is a different story than a company just deciding, "Nope, we don't want the lease anymore". And most restaurants are structured as an LLC and owned by the parent corporation (or just independently owned by individuals) who can shut down the business and not be on the hook for any debts that were not secured with a personal guarantee.