WeWork Wants to Become Its Own Landlord With Latest Spending Spree

 

Adam Neumann runs one of the few startups on Earth for which ＄2 billion of fresh funding was, or ever could be, terrible news. Just before last Christmas, Masayoshi Son, Neumann’s most important investor, called to say that was his final offer and that their negotiations over an additional ＄16 billion for Neumann’s WeWork were over. Shares of Son’s SoftBank Group Corp. stock had dropped sharply a few days earlier along with the rest of the stock market, and Son had decided the ＄8.5 billion he’d already invested wasn’t worth more than doubling, even to take a majority stake. With a cash infusion almost an order of magnitude less than it had expected, WeWork Cos. would have to figure out on its own how to stop losing ＄1.9 billion a year.

 

That flip-flop revived questions about what exactly the office-space-renting startup is and how it should be seen. Son made the call because the biggest investors in SoftBank’s ＄100 billion Vision Fund didn’t want to be so exposed to a single real estate company, according to people familiar with his thinking. SoftBank didn’t respond to a request for comment. Neumann says the reversal was understandable given the momentary market freakout and that it’s tough to get too annoyed at the guy who’s given you a grand total of ＄10.5 billion. “They’re very nice people,” he says.

 

 

WeWork希望通過最近的瘋狂消費成為自己的房東

 

 

 

 

 

亞當•諾伊曼(Adam Neumann)是地球上為數不多的20億美元新融資曾經是、甚至可能是可怕消息的初創企業之一。就在去年聖誕節前夕，諾依曼最重要的投資者孫正義(Masayoshi Son)打電話來說，這是他的最終報價，他們就諾依曼WeWork另外160億美元的談判已經結束。孫正義持有的軟銀集團(SoftBank Group Corp.)的股票和其他股票幾天前一起大幅下跌，孫正義認為，他已經投資的85億美元不值兩倍多，即便是為了獲得多數股權。由於注入的現金幾乎比預期少了一個數量級，WeWork Cos。將不得不自己想辦法停止每年19億美元的虧損。

 

 

 

 

這一轉變再次引發了人們的疑問:到底什麼是租用辦公空間的初創公司?人們應該如何看待這家公司?據瞭解孫正義想法的人士透露，孫正義之所以這麼做，是因為軟銀1000億美元願景基金的最大投資者不希望如此依賴一家房地產公司。軟銀沒有回覆置評請求。諾伊曼說，考慮到眼下的市場動盪，這種逆轉是可以理解的，而且很難對這個給你105億美元的傢伙太過惱火。“他們是非常好的人，”他說。