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WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann
Photo: Eduardo Munoz/ REUTERS
WeWork was once considered the most valuable start-up in the USA. In January 2019, it was valued at $47 billion. Then came the bankruptcy. And now Adam Neumann, former company boss and co-founder, apparently wants to buy the company back. He submitted an offer of more than $500 million for WeWork, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Neumann was considered an eccentric boss. He boasted back then that he wanted to become the world's first trillionaire and rid the world of all famine. He once had around 7,000 employees from all over the world flown in to a private festival near London for a company party. Even back then, the idea of his start-up didn't seem very revolutionary: rent office space, furnish it in a stylish way and then rent it out to company departments, start-ups or individual entrepreneurs for an additional charge.
The company's high valuation flopped with the planned IPO. Neumann had to resign as boss and WeWorks investor Softbank invested another $9.5 billion in the company. At the time, “manager magazine” described Softbank as “the stupidest source of money in Silicon Valley.” The corona pandemic completely called WeWork's concept into question. In 2023, the company filed for bankruptcy - without ever having made a profit.
But for Neumann, leaving WeWork was lucrative: his farewell package was said to be worth $1.7 billion.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Neumann's lawyers wrote to WeWork's advisors last month that he wanted to join forces with Dan Loeb's Third Point hedge fund and other investors to buy WeWork back. However, Third Point is not said to be involved in the current offer. A spokeswoman for the fund confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that there had been discussions with Neumann's real estate company Flow Global. However, the hedge fund did not undertake any obligation to participate in a transaction.
vet/Reuters