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🠈  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.

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References:

  1. SEC - We Company S1 (Drawn 10/23/2019)
  2. Tech Startups - WeWork lays off a quarter of its staff (Drawn 10/23/2019)
  3. CCN - WeWork Too Broke To Pay Employees (Drawn 10/23/2019)
  4. Slate - WeWork Severance (Drawn 10/23/2019)
  5. Wikipedia - WeWork (Drawn 10/24/2019)
  6. We - Softbank Investment (Drawn 10/24/2019)
  7. Wikipedia - Adam Neumann (Drawn 10/26/2019)

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