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WeWork’s going public could be delayed … again.
The coworking company, which earlier this year said it would go public by Sept. 30, postponed that deadline to sometime in the fourth quarter, possibly next month, Bloomberg reports.
WeWork officials told Bloomberg that a potential slowdown in the process was a result of delays at the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has reportedly been the case for other companies looking to go public recently as well.
In April, when WeWork and Starwood Capital-backed BowXAcquisitions — the special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, it plans to merge with — began shopping for investors, some were concerned that aspects of the company’s stated financial projections struck the same inflated tone as its doomed 2019 IPO attempt. The coworking company has decried that categorization.
“With a new management team in place, WeWork spent the last year working diligently to improve the fundamentals of the business with a renewed commitment to ensuring our financial disclosures — whether quarterly earnings or our merger announcement with BowX — continue to meet SEC standards,” it told Bisnow in a statement at the time. “As we move forward in the SPAC process, we have a fully subscribed $800m PIPE [private investment in public equity] which includes investors like Starwood Capital Group, Fidelity, Insight Partners, and BlackRock. We will always work with the SEC to ensure our disclosures comply with their requirements."
WeWork’s prior attempt to go public through an IPO in summer 2019 hit a ruinous end, but with new leadership, the company has attested that it is rightsizing its portfolio and is on a path to profitability by the end of this year. Coworking nationwide saw a strong start to a recovery last quarter.
CORRECTION, SEPT. 17, 9:46 A.M. ET: An earlier version of this story said WeWork had a Sept. 31 deadline to go public. There are only 30 days in September. The story has been updated.
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