Adam Neumann, WeWork’s billionaire founder and ex-CEO, has reportedly spending months trying to buy back the bankrupt co-working giant.
A team of lawyers led by Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel — who also represents Elon Musk and Jay-Z — penned a letter earlier reported on by The Recent York Times detailing Neumann’s attempts to purchase his once-high-flying startup via his latest real estate company, Flow Global.
The letter sent to WeWork’s advisers on Monday, said that Flow — which has already raised $350 million from the enterprise capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, per the NY Times — would get additional capital from hedge fund titan Dan Loeb to buy WeWork or its assets, in addition to provide bankruptcy financing.
Within the note, Flow’s counsel also accused WeWork’s advisers of a “lack of engagement even to provide information to my clients in what is meant to be a value-maximizing transaction for all stakeholders.”
Spiro said that Neumann and affiliates of latest enterprise have worked since December 2023 “to obtain information needed for a suggestion to purchase the company or its assets,” though “they still do not need access to that information.”
The letter claims that this avoidance has “jeopardized” WeWork and “has failed to maximize value for all stakeholders — the goal of any bankruptcy process.”
In one other example of WeWork’s stonewalling amid Neumann’s years-long attempt to spend money on the embattled firm, its CEO canceled a scheduled meeting with Neumann, where he was expected to share his plans for “a considerable equity infusion that will have helped the company,” Spiro wrote.
Around that point, in October 2022, 44-year-old Neumann — who was ousted as chief in 2019 over reports about his outlandish behavior — sought to arrange “up to $1 billion in financing to stabilize WeWork.”
However the company’s then-chief, Sandeep Mathrani, “shut down that process without explanation,” according to the letter.
Neumann’s attorneys also argue within the letter that Flow’s takeover of WeWork “could significantly exceed the worth of the debtors on a standalone basis.”
“WeWork should at the very least educate itself about that potential and never preclude itself from maximizing value,” Spiro concludes.
Spiro declined to comment further.
A WeWork spokesperson told The Post that it receives “expressions of interest from external parties regularly.”
“We and our advisors at all times review those approaches with a view to acting in the perfect interests of the company,” the spokesperson added.
Before Neumann was kicked out of the firm after a string of controversies — including when he left a wad of marijuana stuffed in a cereal box on a borrowed private plane and abruptly announced that WeWork was banning meat at worker events — he was reportedly able to extract huge amounts of money from his company before it stumbled into bankruptcy.
Neumann was also handed $200 million in money as part of a sweetheart exit package, meaning the eccentric executive has been able to maintain his billionaire status despite WeWork’s Chapter 11 proceedings, which were initiated in November, when it had $19 billion in liabilities and $15 billion in assets.
Neumann has since stayed under the radar constructing a latest startup, Flow — a starkly different narrative from WeWork’s peak, when it was valued at $47 billion and a seemingly carefree Neumann pounded champagne at events as early as 9 a.m.
Ahead of Spiro’s letter, there have been rumblings as early as October — when Neumann’s non-compete expired — that he could have a kind of reunion with the company post-bankruptcy.
WeWork, which once operated 850 locations across 30-plus countries, now boasts just 630 locations on its website.