WeWork

On November 6, 2023, WeWork filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, reporting $19 billion in liabilities against $15 billion in assets. The bankruptcy affected over 500 locations worldwide, nearly 300 in the US and Canada. The company needed to terminate more than 100 leases and eliminate over $4 billion in debt. The filing represented the culmination of years of unsustainable spending, governance failures, and an over-leveraged real estate model that left employees, landlords, and investors bearing massive losses.

In November 2019, WeWork laid off 2,400 employees, representing 19% of its total workforce of 12,500. The mass layoffs came after the company's failed IPO attempt and mounting financial losses. Employees who had been promised bonuses and raises never received them, while the company had spent over $60 million on a Gulfstream G650 private jet for the CEO. Many employees held stock options that became effectively worthless after the valuation collapse from $47 billion to approximately $10 billion.

In October 2019, despite presiding over a failed IPO that destroyed tens of billions in valuation and led to thousands of layoffs, former CEO Adam Neumann received close to $1.7 billion from SoftBank to resign from WeWork's board and sever ties with the company. The package included $970 million for his remaining shares, a $185 million consulting fee, and a $500 million credit to repay personal loans from JPMorgan Chase. This occurred while laid-off employees lost stock options that had become worthless, highlighting an extreme disparity in outcomes between executive leadership and rank-and-file workers.

WeWork formally withdrew its S-1 filing and postponed its IPO on September 17, 2019, after investors raised serious concerns about corporate governance. The filing revealed founder Adam Neumann held super-voting shares (20:1 ratio), lacked meaningful board oversight, had installed his wife as chief brand officer with power to fire employees, and had structured succession planning around the Neumann family. The company's valuation collapsed from $47 billion to approximately $10 billion. Neumann was forced to step down as CEO on September 24, 2019.

WeWork's August 2019 S-1 filing revealed extensive self-dealing by co-founder and CEO Adam Neumann. He purchased properties and leased them back to WeWork with future lease obligations of approximately $236.6 million. He trademarked the word 'We' and charged WeWork nearly $6 million to use it when the company rebranded. He took personal loans from the company and cashed out at least $700 million in shares before the IPO attempt. These revelations triggered investigations by both the SEC and the New York Attorney General into potential financial rule violations and self-enrichment.