WeWork lost $ 3.2 billion in 2020 alone

According to Reuters, the office space sharing startup WeWork saw a loss of $ 3.2 billion last year alone. This is information that WeWork itself revealed in a presentation looking for new investments expected to reach about $ 1 billion. In addition, the company is also considering restarting the failed IPO plan.

This loss has narrowed slightly from $ 3.5 billion in 2019 and they are planning an IPO at $ 9 billion including debt through a merger with a SPAC company. (A special purpose acquisition company – a shell company, listed on the stock exchange that specializes in acquiring real companies).

In January, Reuters reported that WeWork was negotiating an IPO through a merger with a SPAC company and was looking to raise more capital from private investors.

The company’s plans for an IPO in 2019 were completely unsuccessful due to criticism of the business model and management style of then-co-founder and CEO Adam Neumann.

Softbank – the largest investor in the company at that time suffered heavy losses. Masayoshi Son’s reputation has also deteriorated seriously. “We failed to invest in WeWork and I admit that at times I was foolish,” Mr. Son once admitted. Softbank has invested a total of $ 18.5 billion in this company.

WeWork, for its part, expects bookings to recover to 90% by the end of 2022, from 47% at the end of last year when the Covid-19 translation hits.

The company also expects adjusted profit before tax, interest rate, and depreciation to reach 485 million USD next year.

WeWork’s profitable ambitions are not without foundation.

As people move to work from home and reduce demand for office space, a few companies have turned to WeWork to rent workspaces near where their employees live to expand their forces beyond availability. available at the office.

Mastercard, ByteDance, Microsoft and Citigroup are all the companies that just signed a new lease with WeWork in the past month.

“Many companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon have told their employees that they can work from home as long as they want. We have so many people who turn to WeWork infrastructure to use 1. days, 1 week, 2 weeks, even 3 weeks “.

“The demand for our own space has skyrocketed. Maybe our buildings won’t see as crowded as before, but the demand for high quality space will increase at the highest rate of all time.” “WeWork said.