Adam Neumann—WeWork IPO collapsed amid revelations of extreme self-dealing and corporate governance failures
WeWork's planned 2019 IPO collapsed after its S-1 filing revealed extensive self-dealing by CEO Adam Neumann: he had trademarked 'We' and charged the company $5.9M to license it, personally owned buildings leased back to WeWork, had taken hundreds of millions in personal loans secured by company stock, and maintained supervoting shares giving him near-total control. The company's valuation dropped from $47B to under $10B.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Governance | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Corporate Transparency | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Executive Compensation | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -1.180 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (critical ×2) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
WSJ reported WeWork S-1 revealed Neumann's extensive self-dealing
The Wall Street Journal reported on WeWork's S-1 filing which revealed CEO Adam Neumann had trademarked 'We' and charged the company $5.9M for the name, owned properties leased to WeWork, and held supervoting shares.