Wework: The ‘Hypothetical’ Company at the Heart of the Property Market
The shared office space provider sees itself as a technology, not a real estate group
By Eric Platt and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson
Masayoshi Son, the Japanese billionaire, left an indelible mark on California’s property market when he spent a reported $117m on a nine-acre estate in the hills above Palo Alto. It was one of the largest sums ever paid for a home in the US at the time.
But it pales in comparison to the impact the SoftBank boss has had on the commercial real estate world with his $10bn-plus investment in WeWork. In less than a decade, the lossmaking provider of office space has grown from renting a single building in New York’s Soho district to become one of the largest tenants in cities across the globe.
Its rapid growth is down to the unbridled optimism of two men: Adam Neumann, the 40-year old entrepreneur and founder of WeWork, and Mr Son, who has egged on his protege’s lofty visions. He has also pumped more money into the younger man’s company than any other investor, effectively setting its valuation, which at $47bn now eclipses all but a handful of publicly traded property groups.
