Adam Neumann, the ousted co-founder of WeWork, has tabled a bid worth more than $500m (£395m) in an attempt to regain control of the long troubled shared office space rental company that he launched in 2010.
Flow, Neumann’s property company, said on Monday that it had submitted a potential bid for WeWork with a “coalition of half a dozen financing partners”. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported Neumann’s offer, said it was tabled at more than $500m.
“WeWork is an extraordinary company and it’s no surprise we receive expressions of interest from third parties on a regular basis,” WeWork said in a statement shared with Reuters.
“Our board and our advisers review those approaches in the ordinary course, to ensure we always act in the best long-term interests of the company,” it added.
It said it remained focused on restructuring efforts, after filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US in November as high interest rates, and falling demand for office space because of home working, took their toll. WeWork added that its turnaround plans would help it emerge as a “financially strong and profitable company”.
Last month it emerged that Neumann had been trying for months to meet the company – which was once valued at $47bn – to negotiate a deal to buy it outright, or provide it with debt financing.
Lawyers representing Neumann’s new venture, Flow Global, sent a letter to WeWork advisers in February, reportedly suggesting he was exploring a joint bid for the company with investors including the US hedge fund Third Point.
Third Point later told Reuters it had held “only preliminary conversations” with Neumann, and had not made any financial commitments towards a potential deal.
Neumann was once tipped to join the ranks of the world’s richest people, with a personal fortune of $14bn from the planned flotation of WeWork in 2019.
During its ascendence, the company invested heavily in acquiring a series of long-term leases in some of the world’s most expensive real estate markets, amassing nearly 800 locations across 39 countries.
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But investors, already sceptical of the company’s near-$50bn valuation, were ultimately put off by terms of the stock listing, including demands that each of Neumann’s shares should carry 20 times the votes of ordinary stock, and that his wife should have a say in selecting his successor should he die.
The IPO was eventually postponed, and Neumann later quit as chief executive, as a series of increasingly damaging allegations about his personal conduct and eccentric lifestyle came to light.
The executive “would convince employees to take shots of pricey Don Julio tequila, work 20-hour days [and] attend 2am meetings”, according to the New York Times. “He would convince them to smoke marijuana at work, dance to Journey around a fire in the woods on weekend excursions, smoke more pot [and] drink more tequila.”
Neumann has since returned to leadership, and announced plans for the property venture Flow – focused on branded apartments targeting millennial rentals – in 2022. Despite scheduling a 2023 launch, its business plan has yet to be made public, leaving its website still claiming it is “coming soon”.
