Five years after he had to leave his company, founder and ex-CEO Adam Neumann is apparently trying to buy back WeWork. How the transaction will be financed remains unclear.
Founder and ex-CEO Adam Neumann apparently wants to return to WeWork.
Like from one Wall Street Journal article From Monday, founder and ex-CEO Adam Neumann wants to buy back WeWork for more than 500 million dollars – the equivalent of around 460 million euros. Five years ago, Neumann had to leave his company under pressure from investors after details of his eccentric management style became known. He paid well for his exit with 1.7 billion euros. In November 2023, the company filed for bankruptcy in the United States and Canada. A restructuring according to the US insolvency procedure “Chapter 11” was sought.
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In the article, The Wall Street Journal cites information from people familiar with the matter. According to them, it is not clear how the transaction will be financed. Neumann’s lawyers informed WeWork consultants by email in February 2024 that Neumann wanted to join forces with Dan Loeb’s hedge fund Third Point and other investors to buy back WeWork. However, a spokeswoman for Third Point told the Wall Street Journal that the hedge fund had only held preliminary discussions about the WeWork buyback with Neumann’s real estate company Flow Global. Third Point did not commit to the transaction.
In addition, Neumann is said to have mentioned in the February email that the current management was responsible for WeWork’s financial difficulties. According to Neumann, management was unable to obtain financial support. The email also said that Neumann had not received the requested documents that he needed to submit an offer since December 2023.
Adam Neumann founded WeWork in New York in 2010. In a very short time, the coworking provider became one of the most successful companies in the world. At its peak, WeWork was worth $47 billion. Despite this, the company was never profitable. The catastrophic attempt at an IPO, which led to the exodus of the controversial founder Neumann, was followed by the corona pandemic. And with it the trend towards home offices, which significantly influenced WeWork’s business model.
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