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In 2019, WeWork tumbled from initial public offering talks to near bankruptcy in six weeks.A year and a half later, the real estate company is again set to go public, this time by merging with a Shaquille O'Neal-advised special-purpose acquisition company in a deal announced Friday. For WeWork and its backers, the p...

WeWork is projecting a rapid turnaround of its business ahead of a merger announced on Friday with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC , that would allow the flexible workspace company to go public at a valuation of around $9 billion. The deal with BowX Acquisition Corp., if successful, would take WeWork ...

Summary List Placement SoftBank-backed companies laid off thousands of employees globally in 2020 as they struggled to find paths to profitability. In the first full week of 2020, four companies – Oyo, Rappi, Getaround, and Zume – laid off a combined 2,600 employees.  Other SoftBank-backed companies including WeWork, Uber, Wag, and Fair have also cut their ranks dramatically in 2020.  SoftBank also saw significant...

Summary List Placement Back in 2018, co-working startup WeWork was one of the most valuable private companies in the world, intent on growth at all costs. It's cofounder, Adam Neumann, was pushing the company to expand into retail.  That ambition is what led Neumann to schedule a meeting with former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, according to Reeves Wiedeman's new book "Billion Dollar Loser," which...

Summary List Placement When WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann stepped down as CEO last September amid a string of controversies, he landed a massive exit package from WeWork investor SoftBank, which took over the embattled company, that included a $185 million consulting deal. But Neumann may have invalidated that contract after he "may have violated" its terms, WeWork executive chairman Marcelo Claure suggested Monday during...

Some financial firms are evaluating their post-pandemic office needs. Wells Fargo is not renewing its lease in a 750-person WeWork space in Charlotte, N.C. Citi meanwhile has signed a lease for a roughly 100-person WeWork space that's not in a major city. UBS is pushing ahead with working with WeWork remodelling a large space in New Jersey, now incorporating a social distancing-geared design.  Charlie...

Jack Ma is resigning from SoftBank's board of directors effective June 25. Ma has been a director at SoftBank for 13 years. News of his departure came just as SoftBank posted a $13 billion loss, while Softbank's flagship vision fund suffered a $17.7 billion loss.  Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Alibaba founder and China's richest man Jack Ma has left SoftBank's board...

WeWork founder Adam Neumann is suing SoftBank for backing out of a planned $3 billion stock purchase.  He could group his lawsuit with a similar case filed last month by two former board members. Neumann's lawsuit claims that in late December, SoftBank and Marcelo Claure, WeWork's chairman, amended the agreed-upon order of the stock purchase agreement without Neumann's permission.  For more WeWork stories, click...

The past decade was an eventful one for the startup world. The rise of smartphones, online marketplaces, the sharing economy, and cheap access to the cloud have enabled entirely new business models — some more successful than others. Business Insider spoke with five venture capitalists about the startups that had the biggest impact on the tech world throughout the 2010s.  They noted that companies...

WeWork has started global layoffs as the coronavirus pandemic ravages the office industry, with sales, physical product, operations, and other groups seeing cuts on Thursday. Other venture-backed competitors, including Knotel, Industrious, and Convene, have laid off hundreds as the pandemic drives down demand for office space. Earlier this month, WeWork's outsourced cleaning provider, JLL, laid off some cleaning staff in response to the pandemic. ...

SoftBank is abandoning its plan to buy $3 billion worth of WeWork shares from other investors and employees, including some $970 million worth from company cofounder Adam Neumann. The move likely means WeWork itself won't be able to tap into a $1.1 billion credit line from SoftBank. The share purchase effort and credit line were part of the WeWork rescue package SoftBank announced last...

An employee at financial giant TIAA has contracted coronavirus, Business Insider has learned.  The worker in New York was quarantined and classified as low-risk. They tested positive for the virus days after their quarantine began.  The employee worked in TIAA's WeWork space at 575 Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, TIAA's temporary home while nearby headquarters are renovated.  The WeWork in Midtown Manhattan where the...

WeWork will name Sandeep Mathrani it's new chief executive, the company announced Saturday night. Mathrani will replace Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham, who have served as co-CEOs since the company's founder Adam Neumann was ousted in 2019. News of Mathrani's appointment was first reported by The Wall Street Journal earlier Saturday. WeWork has been attempting to clean up its image following its failed IPO...

Former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann has hired Asher Gold, a Jerusalem-based publicist, for public relations work. Neumann continues to work with Edelman, the Chicago-based PR firm.  For more stories about WeWork, click here. Adam Neumann is expanding his public relations staff in Israel, where the embattled WeWork founder has spent significant time in recent months. Asher Gold, the Jerusalem-based founder of Gold PR, is...

Documents obtained by the Financial Times reportedly show that WeWork's new co-chief executives Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham would each earn $8.3 million if they get fired or leave otherwise. WeWork's chief legal officer Jennifer Berrent would also receive $1.5 million if ousted and would not have to repay $12 million of retention bonuses, which could have been retrieved under her previous contract. The...

WeWork is launching a major ad campaign on Friday, two weeks after Maurice Levy was named WeWork's interim chief marketing officer. The campaign, which features ads that will be printed in a dozen big markets, touts the office company's people focus. For more stories about WeWork, click here. WeWork is running a major ad campaign in print newspapers in a dozen markets starting Friday...

In addition to cutting 2,400 jobs last week, WeWork is also moving roughly 1,000 people on its janitorial and facilities staff off its payrolls by sending them to contract companies. Business Insider has learned the details of the job offers that cleaning staff received. The offer retains their current salary, seniority, includes benefits. But workers are still concerned about job security. Then, on Friday,...

Between the well-publicized issues with its company culture and its equally publicized layoffs, some WeWork employees are worried for their careers. Some say that new job offers aren't hard to come by but feel they are being offered substandard wages. Others fear the association with WeWork's culture will affect their future job prospects. A survey of WeWork employees on the anonymous chat app Blind...