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WeWork has frittered away $46.7B in value as the stock sinks below ¢50

businessinsider.com

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Re: WeWork has frittered away $46.7B in value as the stock sinks below ¢50

#31

Post by ghaff »

im3w1l wrote: post #19
heywhatupboys wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Taxi services" was never going to be a silicon valley style success, because it just can't scale that way. "Food delivery services" was never going to be a silicon valley style success, because it just can't scale that way.

I think those are different, because they are frequent small transactions where having a smooth flow is essential. Renting an office is a longer term relationship so a marginal improvement in transaction cost doesn't really move the needle in the same way.

Those businesses have some shared infrastructure and brand--maybe more than WeWork--but they're still largely city-by-city labor-intensive retail businesses that still can't clearly profitably operate at scale, at least at their current cost structure.

Re: WeWork has frittered away $46.7B in value as the stock sinks below ¢50

#32

Post by tourmalinetaco »

CPLX wrote: post #20
fallingknife wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Losing money doesn't destroy wealth. It just transfers it from one place to another.

Not really. For example there’s a pretty noticeable difference in the amount of wealth a society will have if they choose to build 890,721 intricate snowmen on the island of Manhattan instead of housing, power plants, and infrastructure.

I don’t know, I’d say those snow sculptors are pretty wealthy there!

Re: WeWork has frittered away $46.7B in value as the stock sinks below ¢50

#33

Post by aunty_helen »

jfengel wrote: post #3

Was anything of value lost? The idea, as I understand it, was co-working spaces. They were there to optimize that, extracting the maximum profit in the way they leased stuff. Ok, fine. Is co-working still going on? Has something desirable been lost? Were they creating any value that couldn't be recreated by someone else. I can't care one way or another about fake valuation of market cap. But I do care if work is gett…

For me, a couple things stand out, mcdonalds like consistency. I've been to wework in several countries and each time it's quick to get setup and on with your day. Generally, they're run in a consistent manner with an overarching corporate, which takes some of the interesting local customs out of doing business. Think about renting an office for a month in a 3rd world country.

They're community spaces also, group get togethers of similar minded people abroad. The spaces are generally pretty good too. I've been to a bunch of events at my 'local' foreign wework.

They're expensive, but when you're working sometimes that doesn't matter so much or is paid for by your company.

Like Uber, they're not perfect but they enable a cool way to live for me.

Re: WeWork has frittered away $46.7B in value as the stock sinks below ¢50

#34

Post by shuntress »

CPLX wrote: post #20
fallingknife wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Losing money doesn't destroy wealth. It just transfers it from one place to another.

Not really. For example there’s a pretty noticeable difference in the amount of wealth a society will have if they choose to build 890,721 intricate snowmen on the island of Manhattan instead of housing, power plants, and infrastructure.

Potential future wealth is not "destroyed" when we take actions which do not achieve that potential.

Re: WeWork has frittered away $46.7B in value as the stock sinks below ¢50

#35

Post by tourmalinetaco »

heywhatupboys wrote: post #9
AndrewDucker wrote: post #2

It never had that much value, it just made it look like it did for long enough to get people to invest in it at vastly inflated prices. "Renting offices to work in" was never going to be a silicon valley style success, because it just can't scale that way.

"Taxi services" was never going to be a silicon valley style success, because it just can't scale that way. "Food delivery services" was never going to be a silicon valley style success, because it just can't scale that way.

Twitter and YouTube don’t make profits, yet are still wildly successful. With a high enough amounts of hype, stock price, and money, a company can stave off reality in seeming perpetuity.

Re: WeWork has frittered away $46.7B in value as the stock sinks below ¢50

#37

Post by adhesive_wombat »

AndrewDucker wrote: post #2

It never had that much value, it just made it look like it did for long enough to get people to invest in it at vastly inflated prices. "Renting offices to work in" was never going to be a silicon valley style success, because it just can't scale that way.

> It never had that much value, it just made it look like it did for long enough to get people to invest in it at vastly inflated prices.

A lot of "Silicon Valley success" fits this model too.

Re: WeWork has frittered away $46.7B in value as the stock sinks below ¢50

#38

Post by pcurve »

lvl102 wrote: post #10

Thank goodness it never made it public (first time around). Can you imagine the capital destruction for pension funds?

It still managed to destroy $25billion the second time around, so I would say plenty of damage has been done.

Shame of the investors for giving this sky high valuation through SPAC.

Re: WeWork has frittered away $46.7B in value as the stock sinks below ¢50

#39

Post by [deleted] »

tourmalinetaco wrote: post #35
heywhatupboys wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Taxi services" was never going to be a silicon valley style success, because it just can't scale that way. "Food delivery services" was never going to be a silicon valley style success, because it just can't scale that way.

Twitter and YouTube don’t make profits, yet are still wildly successful. With a high enough amounts of hype, stock price, and money, a company can stave off reality in seeming perpetuity.

[deleted]

Re: WeWork has frittered away $46.7B in value as the stock sinks below ¢50

#40

Post by paulcole »

rlpb wrote: post #12
paulcole wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If WeWork goes out of business and closes down, many people will lose their jobs and many people will lose the place where they work. That seems like something of value will be lost. Yes, coworking is still going on for many sole proprietors, small teams, and remote workers. Remote work does not mean work from home.

> If WeWork goes out of business and closes down, many people will lose their jobs and many people will lose the place where they work. Why? Assets don't usually just vanish; they merely change hands. The spaces will physically be there. If an individual space is viable and has existing customers then the creditors will sell it to someone who will likely continue to run it. If it is not viable then it will go, but th…

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