Adam Neumann transformed shared offices but failed to charm stock market investors. FT business commentator John Gapper finds flaws in the WeWork sage.
With his flowing locks and gnomic pronouncement that the “energy of we [is] greater than any one of us, but inside each of us”, Adam Neumann has the air of a prophet. But the co-founder of WeWork, the shared office group, has not converted stock market investors.
WeWork’s decision on Monday to shelve its planned initial public offering, even at a heavily reduced valuation, is a severe setback for the company, as well as its backers SoftBank and SoftBank’s Vision Fund, and visionaries everywhere. Mr Neumann’s authority was tested and has failed.
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Financial Times
John Gapper is associate editor and chief business commentator of the Financial Times.
