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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

#171

Post by barelyauser »

TheCleric wrote: post #165
barelyauser wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Success is personal. If your goal is to increase the amount of wealth for everyone then go for it. With that said, remember the following. While the economy is not zero sum and we can increase the amount of wealth in the world, power is zero sum. Power is finite and very scarce. You can create tremendous wealth and later find out it ended in the hand of a single person. And that person is not willing to share.

So would you have considered Bernie Madoff successful?

If his goal was to amass personal wealth at the expensive of others. But again, it depends on the person. A cab driver that barely makes ends meet can be successful while a multimillionaire isn't. If you wake up and do what you want to do, you are successful.

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

#172

Post by bbor »

barelyauser wrote: post #156
Ekaros wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Success is personal. If your goal is to increase the amount of wealth for everyone then go for it. With that said, remember the following. While the economy is not zero sum and we can increase the amount of wealth in the world, power is zero sum. Power is finite and very scarce. You can create tremendous wealth and later find out it ended in the hand of a single person. And that person is not willing to share.

On your deathbed, is “I made so much money and earned so much power” really going to be satisfying? As opposed to family/charity/invention/politics/etc. Not a rhetorical question, honestly curious what you think

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

#173

Post by more_corn »

Wework never had that value. It was all smoke and mirrors destined for a fall. The value was obviously irrational from the start.

A better headline might be “irrational exuberance surrounding wework finally fades and the cold light of reality shines on their stock price”

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

#174

Post by cronix »

Ekaros wrote: post #146
sidewndr46 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It can be, and is often, both. Not sure why you have an -or- separating them as if they're always exclusive to each other.

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

#175

Post by pessimizer »

gchamonlive wrote: post #124
fallingknife wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said losing money doesn't destroy wealth. Destroying a city absolutely does.

I was talking about catastrophic events and how it can make you lose money without necessarily transfering it. In the case of wework, the catastrophe is the rapid decline in inflated prices, which makes the assets lose value without a real transfer in wealth.

> the catastrophe is the rapid decline in inflated prices

Using the word "catastrophe" to describe a financial process not going in one's favor doesn't actually turn it into a natural disaster that physically destroys objects.

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

#176

Post by Gunnerhead »

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…

Appreciate the candidness!

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

#177

Post by RC_ITR »

SilverBirch wrote: post #122

This was always the weird thing about WeWork, after the collapse of it's ridiculous valuation people were like "Well, it's still a business, similar to IWG, it has some value". But the truth is no, the only thing WeWork had was a series of liabilities. They had signed a bunch of agreements to rent office space long term at a high price. The valuable part of IWG is that they have rental agreements with buildings that…

WeWork at it's core was a bet that 'if we lock in 30-year mortgages at market rates, office rent inflation will mean that in 2045, we will have significant cost advantages.'

You can argue the pandemic merely accelerated remote work, so it was always probably a bad bet.

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

#178

Post by hef19898 »

laratied wrote: post #155
BulgarianIdiot wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Explain why. It’s literally Uber for offices. It could’ve worked if managed right.

Timing is everything and they had bad timing. The time for this company might still not have arrived yet. I just don't see what they could have done at the time and either way Covid would have bankrupted them.

Regus is doing reasonably well, providing the same services as WeWork. So the time was right, just that WeWork was both, a badly managed shit show, and a well executed money grift (millions forbthe name We paid from WeWork to Neuman and WeWork leasing expensive office space from Neuman). No business succeeds, or survives, under that management. Not that VCs care, as long they can dump their shares at some greater idiot down the line before things implode.

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

#179

Post by fintereseted »

lefstathiou wrote: post #167
fintereseted wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, didn't short it? I see that you're an operator of a fintech info/news company? What sort of analysis did you do on WeWork? P.S. Is the about link in your profile correct? https://finsight.com/about/our-products seems to 404.

In full transparency I didn’t do much analysis. At $5 it was trading at 1-2x revenue growing at 20% in a horrible market with a great operator. The issue is too maturities and running out of cash. Thank you for the note on the link, updated it.

Ah. What made WeWork a great operator?

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

#180

Post by tarsinge »

Ekaros wrote: post #146
sidewndr46 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Another day, another premise of economic liberalism theory proven wrong.
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