Washington (AFP)

WeWork, the US pioneer of shared offices that has multiplied the disappointments in recent weeks, announced Thursday the removal of some 2,400 jobs worldwide - or nearly 20% of its total workforce - as part of a restructuring plan.

"As part of our (strategy) refocusing on WeWork's core business, and as we previously informed employees, the company is making the necessary layoffs to create a more efficient organization," said a spokesperson. word of the company.

The social plan began "weeks ago in parts of the world and continued this week in the US This downsizing affects about 2,400 employees worldwide," she added.

At the end of June, the company still had 12,500 people.

Employees involved in this social plan will receive severance pay, benefits and other assistance to help them find another job, spokeswoman denouncing rumors that dismissed workers would no compensation.

"They are incredibly talented professionals and we are grateful for the important role they have played in the construction of WeWork over the past decade," said the spokesperson.

The setbacks have accumulated recently for the company called "coworking", a word entered this year in the Petit Robert.

WeWork had planned to make a big splash on Wall Street this fall. The company had $ 2.5 billion in cash as of June 30, but construction costs and other expenses sucked the money, AFP sources told AFP.

In addition, questions were raised about his ability to earn money and cope with the global economic slowdown, with real estate often being one of the first affected sectors.

- Investor distrust -

And if these shared offices, often gathered in gigantic buildings, are fashionable in the real estate universe, their business model remains uncertain.

Faced with the growing mistrust of investors, WeWork had to give up this IPO. As for his boss and co-founder Adam Neumann, 40, he finally agreed to leave office.

The company presented, until recently, as one of the stars of the sharing economy has also resolved to be saved by its shareholder, the Japanese investment giant in SoftBank technologies, and save money. drastic.

The SoftBank bailout involved the final departure of the former CEO, who left the governing body with severance pay of $ 1.7 billion.

WeWork, whose value of debt has collapsed, lost $ 1.25 billion in the third quarter, according to a document obtained by American dailies and published last week.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the revenues of the American company have increased by 94% in one year, to 934 million dollars for the period from July to September.

In the second quarter, the firm had already recorded $ 638 million in losses.

The debacle of WeWork also contributes to the difficulties of SoftBank, which announced earlier this month its largest quarterly operating loss ever recorded (700 billion yen, $ 6.4 billion).

Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, expressed his deep remorse and acknowledged poor investment decisions "in many ways" compared to WeWork and Uber.

"The accounts are shabby, the impact of WeWork is important, I regret deeply," he admitted.

© 2019 AFP