5 years after driving WeWork into the bottom, co-founder and ousted CEO Adam Neumann has now hatched a plan to purchase it out of chapter. In a letter to WeWork’s advisors obtained by The New York Instances, Neumann and his new actual property enterprise Movement International specific curiosity in shopping for the co-working area resolution — however claims WeWork has been ignoring makes an attempt to get extra info to allow them to give you a bid.
Neumann and his actual property firm Movement International have been exploring a purchase order of WeWork since December 2023, with the assistance of funding from Dan Loeb’s hedge fund Third Level. Nevertheless, as famous within the letter written by Neumann’s legal professional, Alex Spiro — the identical one who represents Elon Musk — WeWork doesn’t appear enthusiastic about entertaining Neumann’s potential provide.
“We write to specific our dismay with WeWork’s lack of engagement even to offer info to my shoppers in what is meant to be a value-maximizing transaction for all stakeholders,” Spiro writes. I’m wondering why? With Neumann on the helm, the once-$47 billion firm threw out plans for an preliminary public providing in 2019. That’s across the similar time Neumann stepped down (however not earlier than taking a $1.7 billion payout, in fact).
Japanese tech agency SoftBank purchased out 80 p.c of the corporate later that yr. However finally, new management and funding weren’t sufficient to save lots of the corporate, as WeWork filed for chapter final November. Nonetheless, Neumann and his buyers imagine there’s some hope.
“In a hybrid work world the place demand for WeWork’s product must be higher than ever… the synergies and administration experience supplied by an acquisition by my shoppers may considerably exceed the worth of the Debtors on a stand-alone foundation,” the letter reads.
The letter doesn’t element how a lot Neumann and Co. would really pay to get WeWork, but it surely states they’re “able to submit an in depth proposal” to buy WeWork or its belongings. The one factor standing of their approach is, properly, WeWork. As revealed within the letter, the collapsed agency already turned down a proposal of $1 billion in funding from Neumann in October 2022 — and I believe that just about speaks for itself.