WeWork

WeWork To Go Public At $9B In Starwood-Backed Deal

WeWork is merging with a special-purpose acquisition company, SPAC, in a deal that values it at US$9 billion, including debt, the company announced.

The merger with the BowX Acquisition SPAC would take the Softbank-owned WeWork public, two years after the shared-workspace company’s disastrous attempt to file an initial public offering (IPO) in 2019. 

The Wall Street Journal first reported the merger and WeWork then confirmed the deal in a press release.

A SPAC is a company created solely to merge or acquire another business and take it public, making it a cheaper, faster alternative to an IPO, Insider’s Martin Daks reported.

The valuation is less than a quarter of the US$47 billion valuation WeWork achieved in January 2019, which was in part thanks to a SoftBank investment in January 2019.

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