WeWork Is the Most Curious IPO of 2019

WeWork – now rebranded as The We Company (WE) – filed its initial S-1 on August 14, and the company reportedly plans to go public in September. There isn’t official pricing information, but the company’s most recent funding round – a $2 billion investment from SoftBank in January – valued the co-working company at $47 billion. At this valuation, WeWork would be the 2nd largest IPO of 2019, trailing only Uber (UBER). WeWork might not be the largest IPO of 2019, but it is easily the most ridiculous, and the most dangerous. At least, Uber and other recent big-money IPO’s offered some legitimate innovation in their business models even if their valuations were far too high. WeWork has copied an old business model, i.e. office leasing slapped some tech lingo on it, and suckered venture capital investors into valuing the firm at more than 10x its nearest competitor. Click to read more at www.forbes.com.