For the past four years, WeWork has been trying to deliver a turnaround story — one in which the rowdy co-working startup transforms into a stable, profitable public company. It sloughed off Adam Neumann, its rambunctious co-founder and former chief executive officer, and replaced him with an industry veteran boasting a reputation of saving troubled real estate companies.
WeWork was not saved, and the co-working company now says there’s "substantial doubt” it will even be able to stay in business.
The New York-based company is bleeding cash, and customers of its office rentals are canceling their memberships in droves, WeWork said in a statement Tuesday. Its shares fell 26% in the first minutes of trading Wednesday morning.