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> lack of competition allowing them to increase prices. There is so much commercial real estate that it's hard to imagine them in any kind of a monopoly situat

• mpokornyus 7y ago
  Rabois has suggested multiple times that one bull case for them is that the company becomes almost too big to fail. They'd be so large that even in an economic downturn they'd have the power to renegotiate lower rents with the commercial property owners.
  • hnick 7y ago
    And buy out failing, smaller competitors, plus lobby various local governments for a break/handout. Consistency of branding can't be overstated too. People turn to trust when times are hard.
• AJ007 7y ago
  To the other response I can’t reply to - WeWork is also benefitting tremendously from all of the new build outs. Like hotels, condos, and apartments even the cheaper ones are nice when they are shiny and new. 10 years out, they aren’t going to look very good. The front loaded growth could be very damaging to their brand in the long term because of this. I’m not sure exactly how all of those contracts look with landlords, but someone is going to need money to spend to maintain them. If not, the person with brand new build outs is going to look more attractive. Now, maybe I’m wrong and run down office spaces don’t matter. Uber drivers all used to wear suits and their cars were pristine. Even UberBlack cars have holes in the seats and transmissions in poor condition. Uber is vastly largely today than it used to be. So that could be the trick, WeWork at scale but more as a necessity than anything else. If that is the case, then it is more a question of how much extra space other sorts of businesses, like coffee shops, want to keep free for customers.