People make fun of Pets.com. They were obviously doomed. Nevermind that Amazon initially owned 50% of Pets.com. They pulled in 620k in revenue their first year and spent $12m on advertising so obviously they were doomed. They raised $82m at their IPO and were doomed. They were losing $3 for every $1 they brought in because they were trying to make money shipping pet food which has a single-percentage-point margin.
I mean, that's stupid. Clearly, obviously stupid. But WeWork rents space from one group and leases it to another and loses $1.80 for every dollar it brings in. They're middle-men whose value-add is clearly giving you all the stuff you would normally pay double for. I mean, fuck - who wouldn't want to get $800 worth of office space for $400? Other than the people trying to pay the mortgage?
Softbank was going to shovel $16b into WeWork. Instead they're shoveling $2b. Masayoshi Son, founder of Softbank, also piled $130m into Bitcoin in December 2017 which, okay, but he also sold it three months later.
Who wants to subsidize hipster rent?
The filing was in December; since that article linked above, the velocity on WeWork is largely down not up. I suspect the moon-howlers will have plenty to say as soon as the IPO actually happens, regardless of what the market does. To me it looks like everyone who has an IPO is trying to find a greater fool as fast as they can.
My job paid for an office for me in one for a while, though I only went there once or twice. I recall it being like any other corporate office, free coffee and undrinkably hoppy beer, uncomfortable couches and irritating Starbucks singer-songwriter muzak playing in the common area aside. Also I have visited prisons with fewer security checks.