WeWork agrees to go public via SPAC merger, $9B valuation

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WeWork has agreed to go public via a SPAC merger. The deal values it at $9 billion, less than a quarter of its 2019 valuation.

But its valuation had plummeted more than 80% to below $5 billion by September 2019. The plunge reflected growing concerns about the company's business model, the controversial behavior of CEO Adam Neumann, and lax corporate governance.

The BowX Acquisition Corp. SPAC's sponsor is Bow Capital Management, run by Vivek Ranadivé, who also owns the NBA team the Sacramento Kings. NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal is an advisor to Bow Capital Management. The SPAC raised $420 million last year. The transaction would be funded with BowX's $483 million of cash in trust, WeWork said, as well as $800 million private investment from groups including Insight Partners, funds managed by Starwood Capital Group, Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, Centaurus Capital, and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, WeWork said in its press release.

WeWork will get about $1.3 billion of cash from the deal,"which will enable the company to fund its growth plans into the future," it said. Ranadivé and Deven Parekh, managing director of Insight Partners, will join WeWork's board, the company said.After WeWork's IPO plans fell through, SoftBank agreed to purchase $3 billion in stock from investors and employees in a bailout package in October 2019. Neumann agreed to step down from the board.

 

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