SoftBank clinches deal to take over WeWork

SoftBank Group Corp agreed to spend more than $10 billion to take over WeWork, doubling down on an ill-fated investment and paying off its co-founder Adam Neumann to relinquish control, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

The deal represents a stunning reversal of fortune for the U.S. office-space sharing start-up, as well as its largest shareholder, SoftBank, which with the latest commitments will have spent more than $19 billion on a company that is now valued at just $8 billion.

The setback comes as SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son is seeking to convince investors to participate in the Japanese company’s second mammoth Vision Fund, for which he is seeking to raise $108 billion. To stem WeWork’s bleeding, SoftBank will need to reverse its widening losses and find a way to make it profitable.

The rescue financing also marks a dramatic fall from grace for Neumann, who as recently as last month was preparing to take WeWork public as chief executive after attaining a $47 billion valuation for it in January.

While WeWork employees now face the prospect of thousands of layoffs, Neumann has secured a $685 million side deal with SoftBank to step down from the board of WeWork’s owner, The We Company, the sources said.

Neumann faced margins calls on his personal borrowings against WeWork’s private stock as a result of the collapse of the company’s valuation. SoftBank has agreed to give him $500 million to refinance his personal loans, as well as pay him a $185 million consulting fee, one of the sources said.

Reuters first reported on Monday that Neumann was negotiating stepping down from the board and would serve as an adviser.

SoftBank will provide $5 billion in new money to WeWork in the form of debt, the sources said. WeWork picked SoftBank’s offer over an alternative $5 billion debt package submitted on Monday by JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), the sources added.

SoftBank will also accelerate a previous $1.5 billion equity commitment to WeWork in the form of warrants that are due in April, the sources said.

SoftBank will additionally launch a tender offer for up to $3 billion to acquire WeWork shares from existing investors and employees, the sources said. Neumann’s ability to tender his shares will be capped at $970 million, one of the sources added. He currently owns a little over a fifth of WeWork, and is expected to retain a stake.

Based on the outcome of the tender offer, SoftBank could own between 60% and 80% of WeWork but will seek to avoid consolidating the company on its books, one of the sources added. SoftBank and its first $100 billion Vision Fund already own about a third of WeWork through previous investments totaling $10.6 billion.

WeWork and Neumann did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while SoftBank declined to comment.

WeWork abandoned its initial public offering last month, after investors questioned its large losses, the sustainability of its business model and the way it was being run by Neumann, who gave up his CEO title last month. He had retained his position as chairman of the We Company.

SoftBank Chief Operating Officer Marcelo Claure will succeed Neumann as The We Company’s board chairman, according to the sources.

Artie Minson, previously WeWork’s chief financial officer, and Sebastian Gunningham, who was a vice chairman at the company, are now serving as its co-chief executives.

While Neumann’s investors were willing to entertain his eccentricities since co-founding WeWork in 2010, his free-wheeling ways and party-heavy lifestyle came into focus once he failed to get the company’s IPO underway.

During the attempts to woo IPO investors last month, Neumann was criticized by corporate governance experts for arrangements that went beyond the typical practice of having majority voting control through special categories of shares.

These included giving his estate a major say in his replacement as CEO, and tying the voting power of shares to how much he donates to charitable causes. Neumann had also entered into several transactions with WeWork, making the company a tenant in some of his properties and charging it rent.

Neumann, 40, is not the first founder of a major start-up to be forced to step down recently. Uber Technologies Inc (UBER.N) co-founder Travis Kalanick resigned as CEO of the ride-hailing start-up in 2017 after facing a rebellion from his board over a string of scandals, including allegations of enabling a chauvinistic and toxic work culture.