WeWork Looks to Sell Private Jet, 3 Side Businesses
The sale includes $60 million Gulfstream G650 that the company bought last year
(Bloomberg) -- After the sudden ouster of WeWork Chief Executive Officer Adam Neumann on Tuesday, the co-working giant’s two new co-CEOs pledged in an email to staff to “strengthen our core business.” They’re starting by selling Neumann’s private jet.
WeWork parent We Co. is selling the $60 million Gulfstream G650 that the company bought last year for Neumann to use for travel and meetings, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to identified because the plans are private.
The moves are part of a belt-tightening that WeWork needs: The company lost $900 million in the first half of the year. The new company leaders, the former Chief Financial Officer Artie Minson and Vice Chair Sebastian Gunningham, are looking to focus on WeWork’s main business of leasing office space, refurbishing it and renting it out to businesses on shorter terms.
WeWork is also planning to sell three businesses acquired in recent years: event organizing platform Meetup, office management startup Managed by Q and marketing company Conductor, according to the person. There is interest already in buying Conductor, the person added. In addition to the potential sales, WeWork may also turn to job cuts, which one person familiar with the matter said could number in the thousands for a staff of more than 12,000. WeWork declined to comment for this story.
WeWork is still seeking sources of cash. Its initial public offering, originally planned for September, was meant to provide the company with $3 billion and give it access to another $6 billion in a credit facility, enabling continued breakneck global growth. Instead, the IPO went up in flames in the past two weeks over criticisms of WeWork’s corporate governance, its rapidly growing losses and its sinking valuation expected in the public markets. The tumult after Neumann’s departure on Tuesday has likely pushed the IPO back to 2020, according to people familiar with the matter. That would threaten the credit facility, but the company is in talks with investment banks about a new $3 billion loan contingent on raising new equity.
Business Insider earlier reported news of the possible jet sale.
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To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anne VanderMey at avandermey@bloomberg.net, Robin Ajello
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