The Biggest Losers: Which Firms and Investors Are Feeling The Most Pain During WeWork’s Decline?

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As WeWork continues its downward spiral, there’s been a lot of discussion around how its potential bankruptcy would impact landlords and members, and the commercial real estate industry as a whole. Its unbelievably low stock values and bad credit ratings are also top-of-mind, while WeWork continues its desperate efforts — including Friday’s announcement of a 1-for-40 reverse stock split — to avoid being delisted by the New York Stock Exchange. (It’s too late for its warrants.)  

Glazed over in much of this is who, exactly, has held most of those doomed shares as WeWork crashed from its $8 billion valuation two years ago to around $275 million now. Here are a few of the investors hemorrhaging money. A few much worse than others, The Real Deal reports.  

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Real Estate Firms Affected: 

• Cushman & Wakefield: 
  • Invested $150 million when WeWork was valued at $8 billion 
  • Value of investment reported at end of first quarter: Approximately $3.8 million 

• Starwood Capital (Barry Sternlicht): 
  • Raised $800 million to buy shares two years ago 
  • Owns 12.5 million shares, now valued at approximately $1.6 million 

• Others Impacted: 
  • Cohen & Steers: 8 million shares 
  • Oceanside: 1 million shares 
  • War Horse: 800,000 shares 
  • Shaquille O’Neal: 12,000 shares 

Major Investors: 

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• Adam Neumann (WeWork founder): 20 million shares 
• SoftBank remains WeWork’s largest investor with over 450 million shares. 

At this point, even WeWork isn’t optimistic. Earlier this month in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) it raised “substantial doubt” about its continued operations. 

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