We Told You So

We make no excuse for blowing our own trumpet. We told you as far back as 2019, and consistently since then, that WeWork was not worth anything like what it was being valued at. We told you it was not a tech company, but was just a coworking company like Regus and the others.  

In fact, after Adam Neumann left it became apparent that it didn’t have anything like as much tech as boring, old-fashioned IWG had — and since then IWG has bolstered its tech offering by merging with the Instant Group.  

We told you it was worth less than IWG, and we explained why. We told you that even though the coworking sector is in long-term structural growth, and that it has recovered well from the pandemic, WeWork was doomed because its costs are way out of line — thanks to the toxic legacy of Mr. and Mrs. Neumann. We told you that Sandeep Mithrani and the rest of his corporate management team were the wrong people to rescue WeWork.  

I am telling you now that WeWork is a zero. The shares are worth nothing, or next to nothing. The company is insolvent, or soon will be, and the name and the assets will be sold to someone else before the end of the year.  

WeWork’s woes have dragged IWG’s share price down in guilt by association, which is illogical. Who stands to benefit the most from WeWork’s demise? Sanity has returned to the sector and life can become boring again. We can go back to talking about plants and ergonomic chairs.