Ousted WeWork CEO Adam Neumann bids to buy back company: WSJ

According to a Wall Street Journal report, WeWork (WEWKQ) Co-Founder and former CEO Adam Neumann is seeking to buy back the company he once led. Neumann has reportedly submitted a bid to acquire WeWork for a staggering $500 million, coming as the company fights to improve its financial performance after filing for bankruptcy back in November.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Angel Smith

Video transcript

BRAD SMITH: Co-founder and former CEO of WeWork, Adam Neumann reportedly making a $500 million bid to buy the company, according to the "Wall Street Journal." WeWork previously reached a valuation of $47 billion at its peak, before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in November here.

It's taking a look at the shares that trade over the counter right now. And they, yesterday, moved higher. And, ultimately, coming into the start of trade, we'll see exactly where it opens up at. But moved higher by about 216% on this news.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah. This report was interesting to me. One, the fact that he's offering $500 million trying to buy back WeWork, not exactly a huge surprise given the fact that he has shown clearly continued interest in the company ever since he was ousted as CEO several years ago.

But what struck me as interesting was in the letter that he sent to WeWork advisors saying that he was joining-- this is all according to a report from the "Wall Street Journal." he was joining with Dan Loeb's Third Point hedge fund and other investors in exploring a bid for the company.

Yet, Third Point commented back saying that they're not a part of the offer. So there's a lot of questions surrounding this offer. Who exactly is involved? How exactly he's going to get to that $500 million in funding? But WeWork, the path forward, obviously, very murky, unclear. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in November. So several months ago.

They say that they remain focused on restructuring their business, trying to emerge from bankruptcy in the second quarter of this year. They're saying that they are still confident that they could emerge as a stronger financially profitable here company at some point.

Adam Neumann, though, going back and being at the helm of WeWork, I don't know if that's exactly progress, or what people would essentially want to see at this point, to put it lightly.

BRAD SMITH: Yeah. I don't know that after documentaries that have emerged about how he was managing the company, how many coverage, and, ultimately, how we've looked at this entire story unfold, just seems like another instance of a massive fail up in the $350 million he was able to get in funding as well from Andreessen Horowitz later on for Flow, which was going to disrupt the real estate industry.

Wasn't WeWork supposed to do that? My goodness.

SEANA SMITH: And that's the thing-- and also, despite all of this and the troubles that they've had, previous to a played out during the pandemic, and during the pandemic, obviously, we have seen a certain massive workaround or rework of how people are working in an office right now.

The need for WeWork spaces exactly what that does to the potential here for commercial office real estate exposure in the future. WeWork, obviously, very much at the center of that. They have been trying to adjust their business.

Their executive team has come out time and time, again, saying that they are trying to restructure their business and position their business, a better here for the future. So beyond Neumann even potentially coming back, there's lots of questions about what demand is going to be like for WeWork's business on a fundamental level there, before anything really gets off the ground.