Adam Neumann has submitted a conditional bid for more than $500 million to as much as $600 million to buy back WeWork, according to multiple media reports citing anonymous sources. Reports that he was trying to partner with other funds to repurchase the office-sharing company he co-founded surfaced last month.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Neumann's bid.
The sources also said it wasn't immediately clear how Neumann would finance the acquisition.
Last month a letter from law firm Quinn Emanuel's Alex Spiro that was made public suggested that Dan Loeb's hedge fund, Third Point, was going to partner with Neumann to help make the finances a reality.
But the people familiar with the situation have said that Third Point isn't part of Neumann's bid. They also said that Baupost Group, another investment group that had held discussions with Neumann, is not involved either.
The Financial Times reports that Flow, Neumann's new property company, confirmed the offer saying "a coalition of half a dozen financing partners — whose identities are known to WeWork and its advisers — submitted a potential bid" two weeks ago. Neumann also promised to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the company, they added.
To state the obvious, because WeWork filed for bankruptcy last November, its creditors would have to approve any bid to acquire the company. Right now these groups are still trying to determine the company's value, which as the FT noted, will depend on the concessions WeWork can win from landlords, as well as how many locations it ultimately decides to close.
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Erika Morphy
Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.
