NEW YORK (AP) — WeWork has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, marking a stunning fall for the office sharing company once seen as a Wall Street darling that promised to upend the way people went to work around the world.
The New York company said late Monday that it had entered into a restructuring agreement with most of its stakeholders aimed at slashing its debt, while it looks to trim its commercial office lease portfolio.
The agreement is expected to erase about $3 billion of WeWork’s debt, CEO David Tolley told The Associated Press.
WeWork is paying the price for aggressive expansion in its early years. The company went public in October 2021 after its first attempt to do so two years earlier collapsed spectacularly. The debacle led to the ouster of founder and CEO Adam Neumann, whose erratic behavior and exorbitant spending spooked early investors.
“I feel like (WeWork) has been imploding in slow motion,” Nicole Schmidt, an attorney and managing partner at investment banking firm Oberon Securities, said while pointing to Neumann’s actions that lead up to the company’s first IPO failing.
“WeWork as a company may survive, but they’ve got a tremendous amount of baggage,” she