WeWork was founded in 2010 in New York City, it leases office buildings then plans and creates offices with services for companies and individuals to use as work spaces. The We Company is the parent company of WeWork.
In August of 2017 We Work had a $21.2 billion valuation.
WeWork lost over $2 billion in operations in 2018.
In January of 2019 its valuation was set at $47 billion as the company prepared for its IPO.
WeWork withdrew its S-1 filing on September 30, 2019 while also postponing its Initial Public Offering of stock. The real valuation of the company at the time was readjusted to around $10 billion based on its poor financial performance and the money it was losing. This new valuation was less than the $12.8 billion that had been invested in the company since 2010.
The New York Times said that the WeWork failure to launch its IPO and be taken public and the CEO’s behavior was: “An implosion unlike any other in the history of start-ups.”
On September 5th, 2019 WeWork considered selling more private shares at a $20 billion valuation.
In October SoftBank had a $9.5 billion takeover of WeWork. This was structured as $5 billion in debt, a $3 billion buyout of current shareholders, along with $1.5 billion in equity funding that had already been committed but would be sped up. SoftBank’s takeover slashed WeWork’s valuation to just under $8 billion.
SoftBank reported a $9.2 billion write-down on its investments in WeWork on November 6, 2019. The losses were about 90% of the total $10.3 billion SoftBank had invested in WeWork.
The current valuation of WeWork is approximately $7.5 billion on paper based on the recent Softbank takeover and continued losses at the company.
