On 22 October SoftBank takes control of WeWork. It’s biggest investor took the decision after WeWork has been in turmoil since filing in August at the SEC for its IPO. At the time Google from its assessment of Internet data found highly negative sentiment trends related to a company that since nine years operated under the mission “to elevate the world’s consciousness”. The coworking company cut its valuation down to US$10 billion from US$47 billion, removed its CEO and delayed its IPO indefinitely. Softbank gave co-founder Neumann US$1.7 billion to step down, and gave WeWork a US$5 billion valuation. By September the company had 834 locations open or soon to open in 126 cities around the world, building on its model of turning cheap real estate into co-working spaces. Its revenue 2018 was US$1.9bn and it had some 12,000 employees.
