Investments · Office space
SoftBank takes control of WeWork with a rescue package of about $9.5 billion
- Investor
- SoftBank Group (Tokyo)
- In
- WeWork (The We Company), New York, New York
- Value
- About $9.5B package (about $5B new financing, up to $3B tender for existing shares, $1.5B accelerated warrant)
- Status
- Partly completed. SoftBank terminated the $3B tender offer in April 2020.
- Date
- 2019-10-22
SoftBank Group agreed to a rescue package of about $9.5 billion for WeWork after the office-sharing company abandoned its planned stock market listing. The package included about $5 billion in new financing, a tender offer of up to $3 billion for existing shares and the early exercise of a $1.5 billion warrant. SoftBank's stake rose to about 80%, and founder Adam Neumann left the board. SoftBank called off the tender offer in April 2020.
Why it matters
The package turned SoftBank from a large investor into the effective owner of WeWork and tied its finances closely to the company's turnaround. The later decision to drop the tender offer led to a lawsuit by WeWork's board committee.
How the package was built
The package had three parts. SoftBank provided about $5 billion in new financing, offered to buy up to $3 billion of shares from existing holders, including Neumann, and accelerated a $1.5 billion warrant it had agreed earlier. Marcelo Claure, a senior SoftBank executive, became WeWork's executive chairman.
The tender is dropped
In April 2020, SoftBank said conditions for the $3 billion tender offer had not been met and ended it. A special committee of WeWork's board sued SoftBank over the decision, and the dispute was later settled. The financing and the warrant parts of the package went ahead.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
