WeWork: profile of a company in crisis

It was supposed to be one of the largest IPOs of the year, but the shared office group WeWork was instead plunged into crisis after investors failed to buy into its valuation of $47 billion, or its promises of elevating the world's consciousness.

The IPO was called off, and the chief executive resigned.

But what exactly is WeWork? Put simply, it rents out office space, decorates it in a distinctive style, and rents it out on all-inclusive deals to businesses ranging from startups to Facebook and HSBC.

It's grown at a breakneck pace. In recent years, it's become the largest private tenant in Manhattan and central London.

The former chief executive, Adam Neumann, previously told the FT it was about much more than office space.

A lot of times people ask me if we compete against co-working spaces or against Regus, and the answer is no. We're competing against office. We're changing the way people work. The one of the ways that really differentiates us is community.

But WeWork's quick expansion came at a price. As the company grew, bankrolled by its biggest investor, SoftBank, its losses have ballooned. Last year, it reported a loss of $1.6 billion on sales of $1.8 billion.

They combine three things that when put together are very, very dangerous or difficult. When you have losses, like very big losses, when you have opacity, like very, very difficult to analyze because you haven't provided details, and arrogance.

So, when companies are difficult to analyze, then the trust of the management team becomes more important. And when investors, you know, looked hard at this team to see if there was a team here that they could trust, I think that's when things started to unravel for this process.

Another problem for investors was the way WeWork is run. This is the business structure they submitted when they were hoping to list.

It's a structure known as a UPC, which offers tax benefits to early investors. It also creates different share classes.

The former chief executive, Neumann, would have had 20 times as many votes per share as ordinary shareholders.

Investors were worried about his levels of control and other deals, like his decision to charge the company almost $6 million to use the word 'We'. After an outcry, that decision was reversed.

Now, Mr. Neumann is out. The new co-chief executives have signaled a slimming down of the company, and they are selling off its private jet, which Neumann used to travel the globe and which the company bought just last year for $60 million.

But some landlords still think WeWork has huge potential. Mike Hussey of London-based Almacantar owns one of WeWork's largest sites. He says businesses are flocking to WeWork spaces.

What WeWork have done is said, we think modern companies want something completely different. They want a fully serviced operation, the ability to locate along- alongside like-minded people. And we are prepared to wrap the whole thing together, provide you with space that really works for your staff, provide you with the flexibility to do what you want to do in your space, and provide you with all the support mechanisms that you need in order to occupy that space. And that is where the market, and they've stolen a march on the market. That is where the market has really changed.

The new co-chief executives will now have to make that case to investors and WeWork's worried staff. The company plans to drastically slow its expansion to avoid running out of cash. But it faces an uphill battle to show that WeWork really is at the vanguard of a real estate revolution and not just another bloated unicorn that couldn't stand up to scrutiny.

中文

这本应是年度最大规模的IPO之一，但共享办公集团WeWork却陷入了危机，因为投资者不接受其470亿美元的估值，也不相信其“提升世界意识”的承诺。

IPO被取消，首席执行官也辞职了。

但WeWork究竟是什么？简单来说，它租下办公空间，用独特的风格进行装修，然后以全包套餐的形式出租给从初创公司到Facebook和汇丰银行等各种企业。

它以惊人的速度增长。近年来，它已成为曼哈顿和伦敦市中心最大的私人租户。

前首席执行官亚当·诺依曼此前告诉《金融时报》，这远不止是办公空间。

很多人问我，我们是与联合办公空间竞争，还是与雷格斯（Regus）竞争，答案是否定的。我们是在与‘办公室’竞争。我们正在改变人们的工作方式。真正让我们与众不同的一点是社区。

但WeWork的快速扩张是有代价的。随着公司在其最大投资者软银的支持下不断发展，其亏损也急剧膨胀。去年，公司报告销售额为18亿美元，亏损却高达16亿美元。

他们结合了三样东西，这三样东西放在一起会非常、非常危险或棘手。当你有亏损，而且是巨额亏损；当你不透明，因为你没有提供细节而导致极难分析；还有傲慢。

所以，当公司难以分析时，对管理团队的信任就变得更加重要。而当投资者仔细审视这个团队，看它是否值得信赖时，我认为这正是整个过程开始瓦解的时候。

对投资者来说，另一个问题是WeWork的运营方式。这是他们在希望上市时提交的业务结构。

这是一种被称为UPC的结构，能为早期投资者提供税收优惠。它也创造了不同的股票类别。

前首席执行官诺依曼每股的投票权是普通股东的20倍。

投资者担心他的控制权水平以及其他交易，比如他决定向公司收取近600万美元以使用“We”这个词。在引起强烈抗议后，这项决定被撤销了。

现在，诺依曼先生已经出局。新的联席首席执行官们已表示将对公司进行瘦身，他们正在出售公司的私人飞机，这架飞机是诺依曼用来环游世界的，也是公司去年刚花6000万美元买下的。

但一些业主仍然认为WeWork潜力巨大。伦敦的Almacantar公司的迈克·赫西拥有WeWork最大的办公地点之一。他说，企业正涌向WeWork的空间。

WeWork所做的是，他们说，我们认为现代公司想要一些完全不同的东西。他们想要一个全方位服务的运营模式，能够与志同道合的人为邻。我们准备好将所有这些打包在一起，为你提供真正适合你员工的空间，为你提供在你的空间里做你想做的事的灵活性，并为你提供入驻该空间所需的所有支持机制。这就是市场的变化之处，他们在这方面领先于市场。这才是市场真正改变的地方。

现在，新的联席首席执行官们将不得不向投资者和WeWork忧心忡忡的员工们证明这一点。公司计划大幅放缓扩张速度，以避免现金耗尽。但它面临着一场艰苦的战斗，需要证明WeWork确实是房地产革命的先锋，而不仅仅是又一个经不起推敲的、臃肿的独角兽公司。

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2s2m66UiBU