WeWork files to raise $1B in an IPO, reports a $904M net loss on around $1.5B in revenue for first half of 2019
WeWork parent The We Company is about to achieve … Stephen Gandel / CBS News : WeWork IPO filing shows it's losing nearly $5,200 per customer Chris O'Brien / VentureBeat : WeWork IPO filing hypes transformative workplace potential to rationalize massive losses Charlesarthur / The Overspill : Start Up No.1,133: WeWork's dodgy loans, why NULL is a bad number, Google looks for plagiarism … Victoria Song / Gizmodo : So How Much Is WeWork Spending on Kombucha Taps as It Hemorrhages Billions? David Gelles / New York Times : WeWork Takes Key Step Toward I.P.O., Citing Heady Growth and Huge Losses Maureen Farrell / Wall Street Journal : WeWork IPO Filing Reveals Huge Revenue and Losses Alex Wilhelm / Crunchbase News : WeWork Files Its S-1: The Big Numbers Bloomberg : WeWork Submits IPO Plan, Showing $690 Million Loss in First Half Business Insider : WeWork files for IPO, revealing spiraling losses of $1.6 billion Allie Conti / VICE : WeWork Celebrates Losing $1.6 Billion by Going Public TechCrunch : Making sense of the WeWork S-1 (or trying to) Cory Weinberg / The Information : Six Questions Raised by the WeWork IPO Filing CNBC : WeWork reveals massive $900 million loss in filing to go public Claire Zillman / Fortune : WeWork's IPO Filing Reveals Revenue Growth and Cash Burn Brian Heater / TechCrunch : Huawei employees reportedly aided African governments in spying Patrick Sisson / Curbed : WeWork shows massive $900 million loss ahead of IPO Christopher Zara / Fast Company : WeWork IPO filing: Losses, risks, and platitudes PYMNTS.com : WeWork's IPO Filing Details Steep Revenue, Loss Growth Danny Crichton / TechCrunch : WeWork's S-1 misses these three key points Ben Gilbert / Business Insider : WeWork just filed for its IPO, and revealed a lengthy list of risk factors that investors should be aware of Eric Platt / Financial Times : WeWork losses jump as $3bn-plus offering launched Kate Clark / TechCrunch : WeWork reveals IPO filing Tweets: Ellen Huet / @ellenhuet : another tidbit I found amusing: In January, WeWork announced it was rebranding as The We Company. It bought trademarks for “we.” From whom? We Holdings LLC, an entity controlled by WeWork CEO Adam Neumann “we” cost $5.9 million https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/... Shira Ovide / @shiraovide : I have said this 10 times already today, but the related party section in the WeWork IPO filing (starting on page 197 here) is like a work of noir fiction. https://www.sec.gov/... https://twitter.com/... Ellen Huet / @ellenhuet : i realize when reading an s-1 you're supposed to skip ahead to the juicy parts but i'm already stuck on wework's second page, in which the epigraph dedicates this to “the energy of we” that is “inside each of us” https://twitter.com/... Rani Molla / @ranimolla : Three sentences into WeWork's “our story” section of its IPO filings and I have no idea what it does: “Our mission is to elevate the world's consciousness” Mark Milian / @markmilian : WeWork's founder was borrowing money from the company at the same time it was paying him rent, and other curiosities from today's IPO filing https://www.bloomberg.com/... @fattailcapital : Jesus Christ, lock up your borrow now. When the founder/CEO renamed his company from WeWork to We Company, he paid himself $5.9M for the trademark because his personal holding company was already called We Holdings. 👀👀 https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Ellen Huet / @ellenhuet : early this year, WeWork gave CEO Adam Neumann a “significant incentive” to take the company to IPO he was granted about 42 million shares tied to some performance metrics, including hitting public market caps (sustained for 60 days) of $50bn, $72bn, and $90bn https://twitter.com/... Dave Pell / @davepell : Someone will write a bestselling book on how startup funding got broken. WeWork will be on the cover. Andrew Zaleski / @ajzaleski : “Elevate the world's consciousness.” Silicon Valley is a parody of a performance art. “We're a global real estate company that loses hundreds of millions of dollars.” There. That's what you do, WeWork. Was that so hard? https://twitter.com/... Matthew Yglesias / @mattyglesias : Superficially, WeWork's valuation and business model don't make sense but at least there's also these weird corporate governance issues. https://www.vox.com/... https://twitter.com/... Matt Stoller / @matthewstoller : Well it sounds better than “Our mission is to launder money for the mysterious investors in Softbank's Vision Fund.” https://twitter.com/... @bopinion : Everything about WeWork is utterly odd. ✔️ It is a real estate company valued like a tech company ✔️ It is a young company with questionable economics ✔️ It is a company whose relationships with its chief executive requires 10 pages of disclosures https://www.bloomberg.com/... @cnbc : If a court decided that WeWork violated quiet period rules, the company said it would be required to repurchase all shares sold in its IPO at their original purchase price for one year following the violation, “plus statutory interest.” https://www.cnbc.com/... Silvia Killingsworth / @silviakillings : “The company lent him $362 million in April at 2.89% interest to help him exercise options to buy stock.” https://www.bloomberg.com/... Ezra Klein / @ezraklein : WeWork vs its primary competitor, IWG: - Half the revenue - Losing money where IWG makes money - More than 10x the valuation Yep, this totally makes sense, no insane valuations based on overusing the word “tech” here. https://www.vox.com/... https://twitter.com/... Ellen Huet / @ellenhuet : (more thread! more stuff!) an odd(?) bit: WeWork cofounders (and husband & wife) Adam and Rebekah Neumann pledge to donate $1 billion to charity in the 10 yrs after IPO. What happens if they don't? All supervoting shares (currently 20 votes compared to 1) become.. 10 votes https://twitter.com/... Jodi Beggs / @jodiecongirl : this is the same company where the founder tried to cash out without anyone noticing right https://twitter.com/... Shira Ovide / @shiraovide : Anyway, I look forward to reading the stories and takes from people who know about the real estate business, because this is not a tech company and why are people like me writing about this company? Casey Newton / @caseynewton : If you're writing about WeWork today, please remember that it's a New York-based scam and not a Silicon Valley-based scam Nilay Patel / @reckless : Here's the thing about WeWork that I just don't understand: it's a real estate company that wants to be valued like a tech company, but it has huge incremental costs, no moat, and no network effect / lock-in if you're a customer. It's the opposite of a tech company? Rat King / @mikeisaac : wonder what companies beyond wework (who lists recession as risk factor in s1) are exposed when the economy takes a shit like if delivery companies (of which there are currently many) are luxury services other techCos that offer “nice to have but not crucial” services Dumb / @pkafka : WeWork vs IWG, an office real estate company you've never heard of that actually makes money. https://www.vox.com/... https://twitter.com/... Kif / @kifleswing : i see wework didn't list that all of its locations have the same wifi password as a risk factor Robert Stephens / @rstephens : Place your bets. I have never wanted to short a stock so much in my life. https://twitter.com/... Dan Gallagher / @djtgallagher : Real estate company that burns cash like a tech startup aiming to go public next month - while stocks still at their highs. @maureenmfarrell for @WSJ on WeWork's IPO filing - https://www.wsj.com/... Laurie Voss / @seldo : For every $1 WeWork makes it spends $1.60. https://www.axios.com/... Ellen Huet / @ellenhuet : wework growth stat i had a hunch about but still surprised me: only 30% of its spots are “mature” (open for >24 mos) wework says at maturity, a building no longer needs much marketing. that suggests most weworks rn are new (and less stable) s-1 says at 18 mos, occupancy is ~89% https://twitter.com/... Ellen Huet / @ellenhuet : @ShiraOvide is right. the “related party transactions” section is a colorful one https://twitter.com/... some tidbits: in addition to his personal line of credit with banks, ceo Adam Neumann has gotten millions in loans from WeWork, as have board members and top execs https://twitter.com/... Anna Wiener / @annawiener : “We are a community company committed to maximum global impact. Our mission is to elevate the world's consciousness.” It's my fault for reading an S-1 before coffee, but all this suggests to me is that WeWork will pivot to ayahuasca retreats by 2022 Ellen Huet / @ellenhuet : so many different corporate forms of “we” here galaxy brain: what is the plural of “we” https://twitter.com/... Eric Newcomer / @ericnewcomer : SoftBank has invested/committed $10.65 billion to WeWork through various financial instruments since the start of 2017 Ellen Huet / @ellenhuet : how WeWork tweaks its metrics definitions: new change in the S-1: “mature locations” now means offices open 24 mos. or more; used to be 18 mos earlier this year, they expanded the definition of “enterprise” customers to include smaller companies https://twitter.com/... Ellen Huet / @ellenhuet : onto slightly more serious things: WeWork's S-1 has no instances of its infamous “community-adjusted EBITDA” (or any community-adjusted anything). instead it's using “contribution margin” to discuss the profitability of its business on a building-by-building basis Ellen Huet / @ellenhuet : quick jaunt aside down memory lane to the first time i encountered wework's abstract uberconcept of We: https://twitter.com/... @zerohedge : There are 86 graphics in the We prospectus @zerohedge : Number of times WeWork S-1 uses word “community”: 150 Kate Clark / @kateclarktweets : From the S-1: “It took us more than seven years to achieve $1 billion of run-rate revenue, but only one additional year to reach $2 billion of run-rate revenue and just six months to reach $3 billion of run-rate revenue.” https://techcrunch.com/... Tim Culpan / @tculpan : Another sign of SoftBank's sway at WeWork: ‘The “Asia JVs” include ChinaCo, JapanCo and PacificCo. JapanCo and PacificCo are prohibited from declaring dividends (including to us) without the approval of an affiliate of Softbank Group Capital Limited.’ Anthony DeRosa / @anthony : WeWork S-1 finally drops. Net losses of $0.4 billion, $0.9 billion and $1.9 billion for 2016, 2017 and 2018 for years ended Dec 31 Net losses of $0.7 billion and $0.9 billion for the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2019 Will trade under $WE https://www.sec.gov/...