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> It would seem crazy to me that the founder would get such a big payout When the founder is as big of a toxic drag on the company image as he is, it's probabl
by zimpenfish 7y ago
> It would seem crazy to me that the founder would get such a big payout
When the founder is as big of a toxic drag on the company image as he is, it's probably worth more than $1B to Softbank to make him go away quietly and remove any vestige of his presence.
- kelnos 7y agoThe IPO likely would have launched at somewhere between a $10B and $15B valuation. After kicking Neumann out and making some changes that look very sane on paper, the valuation has dropped to around $8B. Not saying I'd ever want to work with Neumann, but arguably he wasn't the worst of the drag. He successfully got Son/SoftBank to believe WeWork was worth up to $47B, and got a ton of money while retaining control of the company. I wonder if WeWork might have been better off (at least in the short/medium term) if Neumann had stayed on and they'd've gone through the IPO.