Lets presume that for some reason Softbank wants to play in this space. What are the plays that are at its disposal? 1. It can buy Regus. Regus does not need m

Lets presume that for some reason Softbank wants to play in this space. What are the plays that are at its disposal? 1. It can buy Regus. Regus does not need money to survive, has poisoned pill and does not have a brand recognition. With 3B yearly revenue. Anything below 8x the revenue probably won't get a board's automatic stamp of approval and anything below 10x won't get a board's enthusiastic "Yes, please!". So that's 35B. Regus with Softbank money would definitely crush everyone. It will take a long time just to get the 35B back. Pro: Definitely a solid play Con: Really expensive. 2. They can create their own competitor - it will take 3-5 years or longer to assemble the entity comparable to WeWork with the same level of name recognition. It will also cost more than WeWork already burned. During that time Regus may restructure and become a real competitor ( they are in a different market now ) and whoever picks up a corpse of WeWork could become a competitor in the juciest markets. Pro: cheapest Con: longest, and most unclear -- Regus may pick up WeWork corpse making it the undisputed leader. 3. Basically do a hostile takeover of WeWork. If that was the play, it seems to have worked very well. It was as if a biker was taking candy from a baby: neither VCs nor C-suite, not ibankers seemed to have caught on. Pro: No WeWork corpse for Regus to pick up cheap, no other competitors show up from it. Cheaper than buying Regus. Con: ~10B spent already + 10B to buy the rest. > what would be their exit strategy from that? They may not be looking for an exit at all. At those sizes cash equivalents without good investment prospects aren't a good asset.