WeWork shelves IPO plan indefinitely

The We Company, parent of co-working firm WeWork, filed to withdraw its initial public offering a week after Adam Neumann stepped down as the company’s CEO.

Photo credit: WeWork

In addition, WeWork is looking to slash its workforce and slow down its expansion to decrease expenses, Reuters reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

“We have decided to postpone our IPO to focus on our core business, the fundamentals of which remain strong. We are as committed as ever to serving our members, enterprise customers, landlord partners, employees, and shareholders. We have every intention to operate WeWork as a public company and look forward to revisiting the public equity markets in the future,” said WeWork co-CEOs Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham.

The two also previously said that they will be evaluating an optimal time to move forward with the company’s IPO plans.

According to the report, experts have expressed that ousting Neumann will not be enough and that WeWork’s business model is unlikely to thrive in an economic slowdown.

See: WeWork’s IPO prospectus: an initial analysis

The co-working firm is also in talks to raise new funds from investors, including SoftBank, the sources added.

It was reported last week that the Japanese conglomerate was in discussions to inject US$1 billion or more into WeWork as part of deal negotiations between the two companies. The rework is just one of several options being considered by SoftBank, and talks are still in the early stages.

The investment could open up additional financing options for WeWork, which is working on acquiring US$3 billion to US$4 billion in debt from a syndicate of banks, contingent on it raising additional capital first.