In less than a year WeWork went from one of the most valued startups of all time (47 billion dollars valuation) to losing ¾ of its value, desperately needing another 8 billion bailout from SoftBank (it’s biggest investor) just to avoid bankruptcy.
WeWork is a coworking company, renting hot-desks, private desks, dedicated offices etc. to startups and primarily young entrepreneurs. It was founded by Adam Neumann, who recently was fired from his job as a CEO of WeWork, who tried to sell WeWork not just as an office space, but as a community of young minds, working together, networking and building lifechanging solutions. His vision quickly drew in a lot of investors to invest in his company, one of them was Masayoshi San, founder and CEO of Softbank, that gave them a valuation of 20 billion dollars which brought WeWork to a whole other level. In 2018 Softbank planned to make a 16 billion dollars investment which would give them a controlling stake in the company, ultimately they have invested “only” 2 billion dollars but it still doubled WeWork valuation to 47 billion dollars.
It was a point when people, especially from a real estate business, started to express their doubts about WeWork, because there were other companies on the market with bigger assets, and was in fact profitable when WeWork wasn’t, and was only valued at a fraction of WeWork valuation.
That still wasn’t the beginning of WeWorks downfall, it was the August od 2019 when WeWork filed for IPO. Because of the IPO filing all documents went public, and everyone could look in WeWorks books. Investors quickly realized that the founder and CEO wasn’t working to benefit the company but only to enrich himself, and that the company was hugely overvalued. In the first half of year 2019, WeWork lost 690 million dollars, bringint its total losses to almost 3 billion in the past 3 years.
Because of the backlash WeWork decided to postpone its IPO indefinitely, remove Adam Naumann from the chair of CEO and appoint two new co-CEO’s, close some of the WeWork side businesses and fire thousands of employees. To keep WeWork afloat, Softbank decided to invest another 9.5 billion dollars, which was a 1,5 billion more that the current WeWork valuation.
That huge and quick downfall is unprecedented in modern world, and nobody knows if WeWork will survive, but one thing that is certain it won’t ever be as big as it was.
1. Have you heard about WeWork? Maybe you work at one?
2. What do you think about valuating companies based on their potential and not their profit? Do you know other examples of this kind of companies?
3. Do you know any other examples of companies downfall?
Comments
I never hear about WeWork. Right know i do not work but in one company that I was applying was using floor hosting i think.
2. What do you think about valuating companies based on their potential and not their profit? Do you know other examples of this kind of companies?
Depends on what I want and right know rather than joining something with potential I want to work in company which alreay have good profit.
3. Do you know any other examples of companies downfall?
Yes, for example travel companies or mobile.
1.
I haven't but it seems like good idea for a company. Well it was the biggest startup in the end.
2.
It sounds like the way to bad investments. Potential and actual capability of a firm are separate things
3. Travel agencies are famous and big ones. Every year there is at least 1 firm going bankrupt
Nope, never heard of it. And did not work for any startups.
2. What do you think about valuating companies based on their potential and not their profit? Do you know other examples of this kind of companies?
Any non-profit company, basically. Boston dynamics is a good example. SpaceX, TeamTrees -- they all live on investments, not actually making money commercially. Their potential and contribution is important.
3. Do you know any other examples of companies downfall?
Kodak, Nokia, Motorola, -- many fell in the bloody gore battle of the market.
2. I believe that this question has no clear answer. If the investor believes that a given startup can be turned into a larger company, he can invest in such startup by increasing its value. Why not? This is his money and he decides. None of the people who are completely uninterested in the subject gain or lose anything. However, in the case of WeWork, you wrote that the founder was stealing his own company, so I think I do not need to add more.
3. No, I do not know.
2. From the beginning all the companies are evaluated based on their potential. Investors, whoever they are, are not going to invest without evaluating the potential of a new business. With time comes the profit. And then you can include profit into your analysis. Those two things do not exclude each other when it comes to company evaluation, you should include them both.
3. Yes. There is a lot of small companies that promote their product, create hype and then get then they get buried under the ground by their own fanbase.
I have heard about WeWork, one person I know works there and is really happy about it 😊. But I cannot say anything about the place as I have never worked there.
2. What do you think about valuating companies based on their potential and not their profit? Do you know other examples of this kind of companies?
I don’t like it and I think it is complete bullshit as it usually creates a bubble that sooner or later bursts and might create a huge chaos.
3. Do you know any other examples of companies downfall?
Yes, lately we could observe a huge downfall of all travel agencies.
Unfortunately, I've never worked for a company like this, but I'd really like to be a part of a start-up company. I think it's a quite good experience if you want to open your own business or start-up.
2. What do you think about valuating companies based on their potential and not their profit? Do you know other examples of this kind of companies?
I think it's a very bad idea because a successful company has to make a good profit. If the company doesn't - it just goes bankrupt.
3. Do you know any other examples of companies downfall?
I don't know the exact example, but it seems to me that a lot of companies have gone bankrupt lately because of great competition or the inability to do business.
2. I presume that evaluating companies based on their potential and not their profit is market's reaction to an extremely dynamic environment we all live in. Unfortunately, I don't know any companies that worths' are estimated based on their future profits.
3. I don't know of any particular case, however, considering current statistics regarding start-ups, many of them will end their business activity, despite multiple stages of investments.
2. This is very dangerous, but it can bring a lot of profit. Personally, I would not risk investing in such companies. I think a good example is Tesla, which is practically not profitable but has great potential.
3. Recently, it was loud about the fall of the legendary travel agency Thomas Cook. Another example is Atari or Kodak.
Yes, I have heard about it and I even visited one of their offices in Warsaw.
2. What do you think about valuating companies based on their potential and not their profit? Do you know other examples of this kind of companies? I think it is possible only in USA, where the money are looking for new oportunities and investors are able to play in long term.
Yes I know, each company which is connected with Elon Musk for example.
3. Do you know any other examples of companies downfall?
Actually I would not say that WeWork crashed. First of all WeWork had crazy CEO, which could claim an impossible things. This cased that expectation of investor faced with sad reality and WeWork just meet the real valuation.
2. What do you think about valuating companies based on their potential and not their profit? Do you know other examples of this kind of companies?
3. Do you know any other examples of companies downfall?
1. I have heard about that company and it's big success, but actually I wasn't aware of their model and how it works until I have read your article. It seems really interesting, but I'm afraid it's not kind of work for me.
2. I think investors tries to catch such a company as soon as possible to potentially have big percent of income. It's easier to negotiate it during start of company than in the case when startup becomes bigger and they need power, not only money. At first it benefits both sides because it give startup big boost in money, and an investor, of course he's taking risk, but hey no risk no fun.
3. I think the most spectacular flop I know is Yahoo. That company was so sure that Google is not a competition for them, they totally ignored it. Just compare how valuable is each Yahoo and Google to come to final conclusion.
3. I am not aware of any situation, but most may end their commercial activities despite multiple stages of investment.
Yes I have head about WeWork, because there are many offices in Warsow and moreover my friend is working there.
2. What do you think about valuating companies based on their potential and not their profit? Do you know other examples of this kind of companies?
In my opinion the profit should be the main aim of the company if it isnt, a company is goes simply fall down.
3. Do you know any other examples of companies downfall?
Yes as an example we can take some travel agencies that went bancrupt not long time ago.
Yes, I have heard of it, but never worked there. I know they have a few offices here in Warsaw.
2. What do you think about evaluating companies based on their potential and not their profit? Do you know other examples of this kind of companies?
I think it is a good idea when investors are willing to invest in the future and are thinking in the long term. I don't know a lot of such companies, but I think Tesla company is also an example of such a company.
3. Do you know any other examples of companies downfall?
As I remember, I was reading about some problems, with the CEO of WeWork, who is a very interesting and emotional person. He can say a lot of loud words and convenience everyone in his worlds, so maybe here is the problem of WeWork. I remember there was a bankruptcy of Tomas Cook, not long ago.