🠈 We Company 🠊
We Company
We Compan (we.co) is a high-flying internet start up that was claiming to have a market value approaching $50 billion. The company was started as WeWork (wework.com) which I believe is now a subdivision.
Basically, WeWork is a real estate investment firm that buys or leases property then subleases the property to tenants. There are numerous companies with this business model. WeLive is building a spaces where people have a sleeping room along with some common space. This business model is known as an extended stay hotel.
The company acquired another high-flying company called Flatiron School (flatironschool.com). Flatiron school teaches basic computer coding and software design. We Company also acquired the well established internet company MeetUp.com. This purchase made since as it would encourage meetup to use WeWork as a venue.
I used the term "high-flying" because many investors questioned the figures on the S-1 statement filed for a planned IPO in Sept 2019.1 As I understand, the company suggested their valuation was $47 billion based on current leases; However, the company was leasing office space from itself! Critics say the market value is probably closer to $12 billion which is a little less than the company raised in its 14 rounds of equity financing.
We Company cancelled the IPO. Reports say that the company laid off about a quarter of its work force along with the high flying CEO Adam Neumann.2 Some journalists question the size of Neumann's severance when it is unlikely that the laid off workers will get severance pay.3 Some outlets claim the severance was $1.7 billion.4
Corporate History
Press releases say that We had 14 rounds of equity financing. It appears to be an extreme example of the way the current market, which is dominated by these funds, is working.
- 2008: Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey launched a coworking company called GreenDesk in Brooklyn.
- 2010: They sold GreenDesk and created WeWork in New York's SoHo district. Joel Schreiber acquired a 33% stake for $15 million.
- 2015: WeWork had grown to 51 coworking offices in five years. Investors at this point included J.P. Morgan Chase & Co, T. Rowe Price Associates, Wellington Management, Goldman Sachs Group, Harvard Corp., Benchmark, and Mortimer Zuckerman.
- 2015: WeWork acquired CASE which was a real estate firm that developed construction technology.
- 2016: WeWork claimed a valuation of $16 billion and raised an additional $430 million in a new round of financing from Legend Holdings and Hony Capital.
- 2016: WeWork launched WeLive (WeLive.com) which makes co-living spaces. It is a livving arrangement where people have a bedroom and shared space.
- 2017: SoftBank Group Corp joined the list of investors with a billion dollar investment.
- 2017: WeWork acquired Flatiron School
Flatiron History
- 2012: Adam Enbar and Avi Flombaum founded Flatiron School.
- 2014: Flatiron held a round of private equity financing.
- 2015: Flatiron held a second round of private equity financing.
- 2017: WeWork acquired Unomy which is an Israeli based sales and marketing platform.
- 2017: The company expanded into China.
- 2017: WeWork launced WeGrow which is a preschool.
- 2017: WeWork bought the Lord & Taylor Building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan from the Hudson's Bay Company for $850 million.
- 2017: WeWork acauired MeetUp.
- 2018: WeWorks acquired a company called Conductor which offerred a cloud based SEO marketing system.
- 2019: WeWork acquired an office management firm called Managed by Q which was launced in 2014 and had received $50 million in financing.
- 2019: Company changed its name to We Company.
- 2019: WeWork sought to hold an IPO claiming its market value was $47 billion. Investors balked at the valuation.
- 2019: Softbank made a significant multi-billion investment in We.6
- 2019: WeWork Company sold its Gulfstream G650.
- 2019: Adam Neumann announced plans to become "President of the World" after a brief stint of as Prime Minister of Israel. He noted that he is well on the way to becoming the world's first trillionaire and has plans to expand his company to Mars.7
- 2019: WeWork laid off its CEO Adam Neumann with $1.7 billion severance and laid off a quarter of its workforce.
References:
- SEC - We Company S1 (Drawn 10/23/2019)
- Tech Startups - WeWork lays off a quarter of its staff (Drawn 10/23/2019)
- CCN - WeWork Too Broke To Pay Employees (Drawn 10/23/2019)
- Slate - WeWork Severance (Drawn 10/23/2019)
- Wikipedia - WeWork (Drawn 10/24/2019)
- We - Softbank Investment (Drawn 10/24/2019)
- Wikipedia - Adam Neumann (Drawn 10/26/2019)