Did I not post this video? I totally shoulda posted this video. The linked infographic is sumpin' else, too. The article you linked isn't even entirely up-to-date: Adam Fuckhead's founder shares have gone from 50 votes to 20 votes to 10 votes to now maybe 1 vote, Softbank says they'll prop up $750m of the IPO and the money they've sucked down isn't fully accounted by any of the mainstream sources - Adam Fuckhead has used personal loans and bank lines of credit worth $500m to buy $238m worth of real estate that he's leased to WeWork and there's another $1.8b in non-convertible loans there. The cherry on top is the $3b in convertible bonds - you don't get paid back on those, you end up owning WeWork stock. Somebody clever on Twitter pointed out that a never-profitable company perpetually failing to IPO is basically 1999 all over again. What's missing in all this is that WeWork has lease obligations worth $47b out there. If WeWork customers decide that maybe it's cheaper working out of mom's house, WeWork defaults on those leases. IPO or no, WeWork has already punched a $47b hole in the economy that it's hoping it can fill. For $1560 a month, I can lease a fully furnished 100sqft office at WeWork. For $800 a month I can lease a fully-furnished 150sqft office at eOffices. $420 a month, I can "hot desk" at a WeWork location in Culver City. For $0 a month I can go to fuckin' Starbucks. So much has already been written about the company’s finances that this single observation may suffice: If, instead of merely subleasing 14 million feet, WeWork owned 14 million feet of office buildings at a valuation of say $500 a foot, the company would be worth $7 billion or roughly 1/3rd of its self-touted value. And that $7 billion valuation would presuppose owning all of those buildings free and clear of debt.
I don't know. They might just be loving this: I'm betting that SoftBank's offer is contingent upon We having the other $5B in hand.We Company is bound by a commitment to a $6 billion line of credit it secured from banks in August that requires it to go public and raise at least $3 billion by the end of the year. Reuters wrote that even factoring in an offer from SoftBank to buy shares worth between $750 million and $1 billion, We Company concluded it would only raise a bit over $2 billion.