WeWork's Co-Founder Is Trying to Buy the Company

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/06/business/dealbook/neumann-wework-takeover.html

by jmsflknr • 2 years ago

30 14 2 years ago

spking• 2 years ago

sschueller• 2 years ago

So he is trying to buy the company he bankrupted using the money that he was giving by investors? This seems surreal. Why does he have any money at all at this point? He ran the company into the ground.

kobalsky• 2 years ago

Why does he have any money at all at this point?

wasn't one of the big points during the IPO failure that he borrowed money from the company, bought property and then leased it back to them?

it seemed jail-worthy at the time

lazide• 2 years ago

My guess is he was transparent enough about it that he was able to avoid it being a crime.

In general, fraud and similar requires lying (either by omission or directly). Investors can’t complain if they were told everything up front, even if it was obviously a bad deal when they sober up later.

fakedang• 2 years ago

It's not illegal, but it shouldn't have happened. But the board was sleeping at the wheel.

daniel-thompson• 2 years ago

one of my favorite pieces of financial journalism ever, https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/newsletters/2019-10-23/mon..., explains how he got the bux during wework's collapse:

[softbank's offer to rescue wework] is the result of Neumann’s holdup power: Prior to the deal, Neumann is still the company’s controlling shareholder, and he could just say no to a deal that he didn’t like. That might completely evaporate his own wealth, but it would evaporate a whole lot more of SoftBank’s, and it kind of looks like SoftBank blinked first: In effect, the price of Neumann allowing SoftBank to rescue WeWork was that SoftBank had to hand Neumann a billion dollars for himself

cyanydeez• 2 years ago

Corporations are social money laundering systems

lamroger• 2 years ago

We are so back

iancmceachern• 2 years ago

Now is a great time to be scooping up office real estate.

I bet his whole play is to just buy real estate low and sell it high. He makes up whatever story he needs to fund it.

htrp• 2 years ago

If he pulls this one off, he'll be legendary for fleecing everyone.

lencastre• 2 years ago

For 1 dollah?

fairity• 2 years ago

I imagine there are many parties interested in taking over WeWork. Given how much commercial real estate has cratered and the shift towards hybrid work, the business model is promising once they reset their cost base through bankruptcy.

I'll be amazed if Neumann manages to come out on top of this deal given how much incentive Softbank has to stonewall him. They've already been fooled two or three too many times by Neumann.

satvikpendem• 2 years ago

Adam Neumann has one of the greatest heist stories in all of Silicon Valley history. He started a company where Masayoshi Son just threw billions of dollars at him after only meeting him for 4 minutes. Then, once he had control of the company, he basically extorted a billion for himself personally where now the value of his personal assets exceeds the original company's value he built. Just an incredible story.

zeruch• 2 years ago

The fact that anyone would ever give that road-diner stockclerk-looking, craven buffoon any cash/credit lines, is a testament to the carnival barker class of this industry.

WeWork's Co-Founder Is Trying to Buy the Company

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