It took a lot longer than expected, but WeWork is finally set to go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company — and at a huge discount to what the startup was once worth.
WeWork announced Friday morning that is merging with BowX Acquisition, a blank check firm known as a SPAC, in a deal that values the office sharing company at $9 billion. Shares of BowX were up about 6% in early trading. WeWork was once valued at $47 billion, making it one of the most valuable unicorn startups in the world. But the company shelved plans for an initial public offering in 2019 after questions about corporate governance emerged, eventually leading to the ouster of controversial co-founder and CEO Adam Neumann. Neumann is reportedly now set to get about a $500 million settlement as a golden parachute from SoftBank, WeWork’s top investor. SoftBank wound up taking an even bigger stake in WeWork as part of a bailout package. WeWork will be receiving about $1.3 billion in cash as part of the deal to help fund future growth plans, the company said in a press release about the SPAC.
