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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

#141

Post by bombcar »

Mistletoe wrote: post #43
polygamous_bat wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One new theory is that the new VC model, as postulated in Venture Predation [0] is to create the illusion of potential to success so that you can dump your shares on the market at a sky high price. After that, VCs don't care if the company loses $50B in value, they already had their exit. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36003096

I don’t even think that is new, it is the oldest play in the book. We see it in crypto and stock IPOs constantly. Sell early tiers of shares to insiders at very discounted rates, dump on the plebs when it is listed on exchanges at several multiples of the price you bought in at that think they are getting a good deal early. You bought shares at 0.25 and it launches at $10 and keeps going down to $5, $2 but you just d…

The bogleheads ideal of investing in massive index funds helps somewhat avoiding these, but it just means you have to be a big enough scam to get on the index.

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

#143

Post by sidewndr46 »

whatever1 wrote: post #133
ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is crazy to me is that Adam Neumann came out of this thing about a billion dollars richer. Now he is with Marc Andreessen (another hokey) in Saudi raising more money for the next hot air balloon. What a delightful grift.

And praised as a successful entrepreneur!

Depending on your definition of 'success' he may be one of the most successful. After all, he apparently managed to profit off a business that was worth little to nothing.

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

#144

Post by quags »

This model is probably workable, but more under a airbnb type model where other people hold the liabilities and rent over a platform. The parent (ie wework) would take a cut, and companies could lease excess space over the platform. Instead wework holds the liabilities, which they got at high values, and now can not rent them. There was a long bull run, and money was flowing at many types of different projects - many which have or will end up failing. It is the same cycle as in the past which really shows itself after a few years of the run where suddenly it seems bear markets can't happen again, dumb ideas are making money and if you are not in you are loosing out. Covid led to work from home, which really killed wework's concept, but if it wasn't covid it would have eventually run out because it didn't make any money.

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

#145

Post by sidewndr46 »

dkarl wrote: post #95
belter wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Specially because those offices were so noisy you could never get any work done. Best places however for finding a date... "What people actually do at WeWork" - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16292423

Coworking in general is a hideous working environment. The offices are fishbowls. There's no privacy. It's worse than open plan offices, because at least at the office, everybody works for the same company. The only times I've found decent coworking spaces, they've been ad-hoc affairs to make use of an old building on cheap real estate. No software startups, nobody chasing VC money, no espresso machines, no free snac…

One of the founders I worked for mentioned that all of his businesses actually started in the corner of a real-estate office. They just rented a few desks to work from, then whenever they grew they moved up to a small lease.

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

#146

Post by Ekaros »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #143
whatever1 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And praised as a successful entrepreneur!

Depending on your definition of 'success' he may be one of the most successful. After all, he apparently managed to profit off a business that was worth little to nothing.

Is success making lot of money for yourself. Or building a business that in general makes money and world a better place. That is generates societal wealth.

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

#147

Post by AlbertCory »

> He's back with a new startup that raised $350 million from the VC giant Andreessen Horowitz in August, 2022 — its biggest check ever — and is back on the tech-speaker circuit.

smh. This really sets a new standard in grift.

Now, if he only had good kompromat on all those investors, he'd be up there with Jeffrey Epstein. Come to think of it...

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

#148

Post by potatolicious »

lefstathiou wrote: post #72

I’ve ridden this stock down almost all the way (came in at $5 then 2.50 then again at $0.50). I am a pretty bad investor in that my top criteria is to buy stocks that produce a good or service I love and then stick with them a long time. As an operator WeWork adds so much value to us as we staff up all over the world. I love being able to go into any city and have a fun energetic and aesthetically beautiful environme…

> "I struggle to rationalize how companies wouldn’t rather utilize flex space as needed for group huddles than commit to long term leases."

Because larger companies have a stable enough need for space, even in the remote realm, to make it worthwhile to have long-term leases. Even if offices become group-meetup spaces rather than more traditional desk space, it still makes sense to run your own if your scale justifies it. A company like Microsoft for example has enough persistent need that they should just reformat their existing holdings to be group-meetup-y. They have no need for an intermediary like WeWork.

Which leaves the market only to companies too small to justify running their own offices - which coincidentally is the same market WeWork targeted pre-pandemic, so remote hasn't actually changed much, much less significantly expanded their TAM.

Also worth a heavy and hearty thumbs-up on the other reply: be aware if the service you love is because the company is very well-run or has some technological advantage... or if it's because you're being sold $100 worth of goods/services for $50.

Free shit is always a good product.

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

#150

Post by laratied »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #143
whatever1 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And praised as a successful entrepreneur!

Depending on your definition of 'success' he may be one of the most successful. After all, he apparently managed to profit off a business that was worth little to nothing.

[flagged]
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