Dr. Gleb Tsipursky – The Office Whisperer
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 largest backer SoftBank and JPMorgan Chase are in a hurry to save the coworking operator from inevitable doom.
After WeWork’s initial public offering failed to move forward last month, SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son and JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon are rushing to fund the company before it runs out of cash next month. But is it worth it?
It seems that both Son and Dimon have fallen victim to WeWork’s old reputation of being a game-changing tech company.
Now, Son has reportedly proposed another $5 billion investment into WeWork, but some sources say that Adam Neumann prefers a JPMorgan Chase bailout over Son’s proposition. Although Neumann is no longer CEO, he still has a say on WeWork’s board.
While it would make sense for Son to move on from WeWork and focus SoftBank’s Vision Fund elsewhere, he seems to be embracing the risk-taking bailout method. Even if SoftBank did take control of WeWork, could it continue using a business model that clearly is not working?
While WeWork was once a godsend for office property markets, its setbacks could hurt landlords and surrounding office properties “even if they do not have direct exposure to WeWork” according to Bank of America merrill Lynch analysts.
