WeWork finished its first day on the New York Stock Exchange with its share price up 13.5% to $11.78.
The company completed its merger with special purpose acquisition company BowX Acquisition Corp. on Wednesday, finally taking the coworking operator public and valuing it at around $9 billion.
WeWork also received around $1.3 billion as part of this deal through investments and a facility from Cushman & Wakefield.
WeWork attempted to go public in 2019 through an initial public offering, but failed after its massive $47 billion valuation, breakneck speed expansion, and investments came under scrutiny.
This led to former CEO Adam Neumann to be ousted and new leadership to take an asset-light approach, allowing the company to hone in on its core business of being a workspace provider.
Although the NYSE was welcoming to WeWork, it is still trying to recoup losses from the pandemic. In fact, the company reported a net loss of $923 million during the second quarter of 2021 compared to $593 million in revenue.
Still, CEO Sandeep Mathrani believes that as companies shift to flexible and hybrid work policies, WeWork will be able to offer new solutions for these models.
โAs companies around the world reimagine their workplace, WeWork is uniquely positioned to offer the space and services that can power solutions built around flexibility,โ said Mathrani. โProviding employers and landlords around the world with our holistic offering of space-as-a-service, All Access and workplace management technology will enable WeWork to lead the market in mainstream adoption of flexible space.โ
