Adam Neumann wants to buy back bankrupt WeWork
Adam Neumann, WeWork’s billionaire founder and ex-CEO, has reportedly been spending months trying to buy back the bankrupt co-working giant.
A team of lawyers led by Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel — who also represents Elon Musk and Jay-Z — penned a letter earlier reported on by The New York Times detailing Neumann’s attempts to purchase his once-high-flying startup via his new real estate company, Flow Global.
The letter sent to WeWork’s advisers on Monday, said that Flow — which has already raised $350 million from the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, per the NY Times — would get additional capital from hedge fund titan Dan Loeb to buy WeWork or its assets, as well as provide bankruptcy financing.
In the note, Flow’s counsel also accused WeWork’s advisers of a “lack of engagement even to provide information to my clients in what is intended to be a value-maximizing transaction for all stakeholders.”
Spiro said that Neumann and affiliates of latest venture have worked since December 2023 “to obtain information necessary for an offer to purchase the company or its assets,” though “they still do not have access to that information.”
The letter claims that this avoidance has “jeopardized” WeWork and “has failed to maximize value for all stakeholders — the goal of any bankruptcy process.”
In another example of WeWork’s stonewalling amid Neumann’s years-long attempt to invest in the embattled firm, its CEO canceled a scheduled meeting with Neumann, where he was expected to share his plans for “a substantial equity infusion that would have helped the company,” Spiro wrote.
Around that time, in October 2022, 44-year-old Neumann — who was ousted as chief in 2019 over reports about his outlandish behavior — sought to arrange “up to $1 billion in financing to stabilize WeWork.”
But the company’s then-chief, Sandeep Mathrani, “shut down that process without explanation,” according to the letter.
Neumann’s attorneys also argue in the letter that Flow’s takeover of WeWork “could significantly exceed the value of the debtors on a standalone basis.”
“WeWork should at least educate itself about that potential and not preclude itself from maximizing value,” Spiro concludes.
Spiro declined to comment further.
A WeWork spokesperson told The Post that it receives “expressions of interest from external parties on a regular basis.”
“We and our advisors always review those approaches with a view to acting in the best interests of the company,” the spokesperson added.
Before Neumann was kicked out of the firm after a string of controversies — including when he left a wad of marijuana stuffed in a cereal box on a borrowed private plane and abruptly announced that WeWork was banning meat at employee events — he was reportedly able to extract huge amounts of cash from his company before it stumbled into financial ruin.
Neumann was also handed $200 million in cash as part of a sweetheart exit package, meaning the eccentric executive has been able to maintain his billionaire status despite WeWork’s Chapter 11 proceedings, which were initiated in November, when it had $19 billion in liabilities and $15 billion in assets.
Neumann has since stayed under the radar building a new startup, Flow — a starkly different narrative from WeWork’s peak, when it was valued at $47 billion and a seemingly carefree Neumann pounded champagne at events as early as 9 a.m.
Ahead of Spiro’s letter, there were rumblings as early as October — when Neumann’s non-compete expired — that he could have a type of reunion with the company post-bankruptcy.
WeWork, which once operated 850 locations across 30-plus countries, now boasts just 630 locations on its website.
