WeWork’s much-anticipated IPO is going to have to wait.
The We Company, the parent company of WeWork, was expected to begin its roadshow this week, but The Wall Street Journal reported Monday evening the company would not start trading next week as planned. The investor roadshow, which was expected to start this week, will now be delayed until at least the middle of next month, following Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
It has been a rough few weeks of bad press for the coworking giant, which first revealed its initial public offering prospectus in August, amid much fanfare. The document shone a light on the company’s enormous losses; after losing $1.9B in 2018, it lost nearly $700M in the first half of this year. It has also faced a barrage of criticism over its corporate structure and potential conflicts of interest.
Since then, reports of its deflating valuation — most recently pegged by lead investor SoftBank Group at $47B — have been circling, along with talk of skeptical investors and uncertainty around its debut.
At first, the company was said to be seeking a valuation closer to $20B, but last week Reuters reported it may actually drop as low as $10B. SoftBank, which owns about 29% of the company, was reportedly urging WeWork to delay the IPO. The Japanese conglomerate has invested billions into WeWork in recent years.
Last week, the company amended its IPO filing to include more oversight, and less voting power, for CEO Adam Neumann and disclosed it would trade on the Nasdaq, indicating it was still on track for the offering. The company said it will appoint an independent director by the end of the year and halve the influence of Neumann's high-priority shares.
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