Weeks ago, WeWork’s long-awaited S-1 filing was available on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website and was met with a collective worldwide gasp.
In addition to the massive $47 billion valuation, details of the company’s major financial losses and Adam Neumann’s business practices were met with widespread criticism. The outcry eventually led Neuman to step down as CEO.
Although it once seemed like WeWork had the promise of being the next big “tech” company to hit the public market, the fall of Theranos and Uber may have set the tone for how it could be unwise to invest into a nonprofitable firm with an overly eccentric leader.
Neumann’s spontaneous, pseudo-hippie behavior was unnerving for investors to say the least. The former CEO had purchased five multi-million dollar homes over the past few years, as well as a $60 million Gulfstream jet he used for WeWork travel.
Inevitably, it was company’s nearly 360-page S-1 filing that spiraled the company into disarray, including conflicts of interests like Neumann leasing homes he owned back to his own company, and purchasing the trademark “We” only to sell it back to WeWork for $5.9 million.
Possibly the most worrisome is the company’s financial losses of $1.9 billion last year and its lack of profitably in its nine years of existence.
“We have a history of losses and, especially if we continue to grow at an accelerated rate, we may be unable to achieve profitability at a company level,” the firm said in its filing, “for the foreseeable future.”
Going forward, it is untelling what the future of WeWork holds, but some analysts think that its now delayed IPO could push it closer to bankruptcy.
