INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
planned $16 billion investment in the coworking company WeWork, those plans have changed radically, says the Financial Times.According to
to comment.The development is both surprising and unsurprising
The government-backed funds of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, which committed $45 billion and $15 billion, respectively, to the Vision Fund,
of money that the Vision Fund has put to work since being announced in late 2016, it seemed there were few if any checks on Son or the
80-plus people who work for the Vision Fund.Just some of its many bold bets include, most recently, a $500 million investment in Cambridge
Mobile Telematics, an eight-year-old, Boston-area company that previously raised just one round of funding of less than $20 million to build
of industries and already counted SoftBank as an investor.Still, according to that Journal piece, the two anchor investors were less
enthusiastic about a giant new investment in nearly nine-year-old WeWork for numerous reasons, including that they see WeWork as a real
estate play and both already have plenty of real estate in their portfolios; that WeWork CEO Adam Neumann would still control the company
even while SoftBank was looking to acquire a majority stake; and because SoftBank has already committed $8 billion into WeWork in recent
years, including through an agreement last year to invest a fresh $4 billion into the company via a convertible note and a $3 billion
warrant that gave it the right to buy additional equity in WeWork.As it stands, including the $2 billion that WeWork looks to receive from
SoftBank imminently, SoftBank will have sunk $10 billion into the company
A shifting public market certainly seems like reason for worry, given that unprofitable WeWork relies increasingly on freely spending
a downturn, told us at a Disrupt event in 2017 that it was positioned perfectly
Being able to give people that flexibility if a recession comes or when a recession comes is actually going to be a very needed
outside investors in WeWork
A further $6 billion would have been injected directly into the company, including a $2 billion commitment this year, and a commitment to
invest a further $4 billion based on agreed-up performance targets for WeWork in 2020 and 2021.Our sources say that, as of this writing, the
Softbank invested in WeWork last year via that convertible note and the $3 billion more than the SoftBank committed last year to invest in
which says it viewed an investor presentation
