Early last week news broke that The We Company filed for its initial public offering, which means the WeWork, WeLive and WeGrow will soon become a publicly traded entity. WeWork originally submitted its Form S-1 with the SEC back in December 2018.
Since its 2009 launch, WeWork has grown from one workspace in Manhattan into a global phenomenon of hip shared offices, business services and more. Now, WeWork is going one step further by heading to the stock markets and hoping that investors will share their vision of expansion.
After showcasing a solid growth rate, the company rebranded to “The We Company,” with three different divisions now operating through WeWork, WeLive and WeGrow. These include residential business, office space rentals, a coding academy, as well as an elementary school and gym.
WeWork was initially valued at $47 billion, however, SoftBank announced in January it was pulling back $16 billion worth of investment in the company, thus its valuation dropping significantly. The Japanese-based conglomerate ultimately reduced their estimates to $2 billion. SoftBank decided to invest considerably less in WeWork due to a decline in tech stocks amid global market turbulence.
Throughout the years, WeWork was funded by more than several private investors, which include JP Morgan & Chase and Goldman Sachs.
Currently, WeWork is worth about an estimated $20 billion. Last year, the company’s annual revenue reached over $1.8 billion, while its losses were about $1.9 billion. The company also lost about $264 million in Q1 2019.
With the reduced valuation on the part of the Japanese bank, WeWork appears to be in for an intersting IPO round once the company goes public.
