The We Company, more commonly known as WeWork, is an innovative commercial real estate company based in New York City that was founded nearly a decade ago, in 2010, by a trio of young, savvy entrepreneurs – Miguel McKelvey, Adam Neumann, and Rebekah Neumann, the latter two of which are married.
Each of them were directly involved in the operation of WeWork since its inception:
- Miguel McKelvey, the sole co-founder to still be involved with The We Company, as its Chief Culture Officer.
- Adam Neumann, who founded the predecessor to WeWork, Green Desk, alongside Miguel McKelvey, was the longtime Chief Executive Officer of WeWork.
- Rebekah Neumann, until her resignation on Sept. 22, 2019, just two days before her husband Adam announced his voluntary departure from The We Company on Sept. 24, 2019, was the Big Apple-based company’s Chief Brand and Impact Officer.
Adam Neumann technically, legally left the likes of The We Company voluntarily and completely on his own accord, though SoftBank, the clearly-largest investor in the company, urged its board of directors and executive suite to get rid of the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer because SoftBank’s own directors and day-by-day operational decision-makers came to the conclusion that they had all lost faith in the ability of Adam Neumann to lead the company.
Just one week before Adam Neumann’s departure from the growing real estate startup as CEO, which fell on Sept. 24, 2019, Neumann was solely responsible for making the decision to postpone WeWork’s long-anticipated initial public offering (IPO) on Sept. 17, 2019. One major reason why the company’s then-current leadership decided to announce that its IPO – here in the United States, initial public offerings are required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to last precisely 20 days prior to applicants’ shares being sold on public financial instrument exchanges – would be delayed until sometime before the close of 2019.
The company’s leaders also did so because WeWork’s market valuation fell below the total amount of funding it has received so far – roughly thought to be $10 billion, down from $12.8 billion, respectively.
Here’s the latest SoftBank-related development
Trusted inside sources recently shared with Bloomberg that SoftBank is currently attempting to become WeWork’s majority owner without taking on the hefty lease obligations that are essential to the company’s business model.
Both companies’ attorneys and decision-makers are reported to be working around the clock to come to an agreement that fulfills SoftBank’s desires. These negotiations could remain ongoing for as long as a week-and-a-half to two weeks.
Dil Bole Oberoi
