EquityZen's Phil Haslett in Bloomberg

WeWork Targets $20 Billion to $30 Billion IPO Value

  • Company weighs seeking $20 billion to $30 billion valuation
  • IPO plans have received criticism for obscuring details

WeWork’s initial public offering won’t be quite the celebration the office-rental unicorn once foresaw.
The New York-based startup is considering seeking a valuation of about $20 billion to $30 billion in the IPO, people with knowledge of the matter said. The range could end up closer to $20 billion, said one of the people, which would be less than half the valuation it secured from its biggest backer just a few months ago.
The outlook for the public debut of WeWork, which has racked up billions of dollars in losses in recent years as the company funds grand ambitions, is cooling after the disappointments of other major IPOs this year such as Lyft Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. That could put pressure on WeWork, which has a mammoth credit line tied to the success of the IPO, as well as SoftBank Group Corp., which invested at a $47 billion valuation earlier this year.
“They would probably price this thing at the more conservative end, maybe in the $20 billion range, given that the company is trying to raise more money,” said Phil Haslett, co-founder of EquityZen, a marketplace for private stock sales.
Read more here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-05/wework-is-said-to-target-20-billion-to-30-billion-ipo-value