BENGALURU - Mr Adam Neumann has submitted a bid of more than US$500 million (S$673 million) to buy back WeWork, the office-sharing company he co-founded and propelled to a US$47 billion valuation before it fell into bankruptcy, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
It is not clear how Mr Neumann is planning to line up financing for his bid, the source said, requesting anonymity as the discussions were confidential.
Mr Neumann raised WeWork to be the most valuable US start-up before his pursuit of expansion at the expense of profit and revelations about his eccentric behaviour led to his ouster in 2019 and derailed what would have been a major initial public offering.
In February, Reuters reported that Mr Neumann was trying to buy back the SoftBank-backed company, which had filed for bankruptcy in November.
“WeWork is an extraordinary company, and it’s no surprise we receive expressions of interest from third parties on a regular basis,” WeWork said in a statement.
“Our board and our advisers review those approaches in the ordinary course, to ensure we always act in the best long-term interests of the company,” it added.
WeWork said it remains focused on its restructuring efforts to “emerge from Chapter 11 in the second quarter as a financially strong and profitable company”.
In February, Mr Neumann’s lawyers sent a letter to WeWork, saying he was exploring a joint bid for the company with Mr Daniel Loeb’s hedge fund Third Point and other investors.
Third Point later told Reuters it had held “only preliminary conversations” with Mr Neumann and his property company Flow and had not made any financial commitments.
WeWork scrapped its IPO in 2019 after investors raised questions about its valuation and corporate governance arrangements that gave Mr Neumann too much control.
The company racked up losses on its long-term lease obligations as more people began working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic and demand for office space plunged.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on Mr Neumann’s bid earlier on March 25. REUTERS
