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Cat Johnson – Coworking Marketing Maven
Angela Howard – Culture Expert
Drew Jones – Design & Innovation
Andrea Pirrotti-Dranchak – Competitive Advantage
Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
Jeremy Fennema – Tech Innovation Alchemist
WeWork’s parent company, the We Company, is considering dramatically slashing its valuation from $47 billion to around the $20 billion range ahead of its initial public offering.
CEO Adam Neumann flew to Tokyo last week and met with SoftBank Group’s Chief Executive Masayoshi Son where they discussed an additional infusion of capital. The two firms also discussed having SoftBank as an anchor in the IPO where it would buy the significant portion of the $3 billion to $4 billion the coworking company is seeking to raise.
Additionally, they discussed whether SoftBank would invest more money that would delay We’s IPO until 2020.
Since We’s prospectus last month, numerous concerns about the company’s sustainability and losses have come to a head. This, plus the wide criticism of the firm’s original valuation, likely led executives to want to seek more money at a lower price tag. Furthermore, investors are concerned about the firm’s sustainability ahead of an inevitable economic downturn.
We had originally planned to debut this month, but now it is uncertain what the company plans to do. Still, it could still start its roadshow as soon as next week as previously reported. If this is the case, the company would be on track to go public by late September.
