WeWork’s Rise To $47 Billion—And Fall To Bankruptcy: A Timeline

2010Cofounders Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey opened the first WeWork in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City, allowing anyone from freelancers to large businesses to rent office spaces and desks.

December 2014WeWork closed a Series D funding round of $355 million, which led to a company valuation of $5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.

2016Neumann met Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank Group Corp., which eventually led to SoftBank committing $3.1 billion in new funding for WeWork in 2017, the Journal reported.

2017WeWork opened its 200th location in Singapore—adding to its global collection of coworking spaces including in New York, São Paulo, London, and Seoul—and reached a $20 billion valuation after raising a $760 million Series G round.

January 2019SoftBank led WeWork’s Series H funding round which raised $1 billion—totaling SoftBank’s overall investment into the company at $10 billion—and valued WeWork at $47 billion.

August 14, 2019WeWork publicly filed for an IPO, but its filings showed large losses, such as a $1.9 billion loss on $1.8 billion in revenue in 2018 according to CNBC, and a $690 million loss on $1.5 billion in revenue for the first half of 2019, Insider reported.

September 24, 2019Neumann stepped down as CEO amid scrutiny from WeWork’s board members and investors over his leadership—including allegations of self-dealing—and financial problems, after the company delayed its IPO the previous week and reduced its estimated market valuation to $10 billion from $47 billion.

September 30, 2019WeWork submitted a request to federal regulators to withdraw its IPO plans, with co-CEOs Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham, Neumann’s replacements, saying the company wanted to “focus on our core business, the fundamentals of which remain strong.”

May 2021WeWork lost $2.1 billion in its first quarter of the year according to the Financial Times, which pointed to the coronavirus pandemic and a settlement between SoftBank and Neumann, who sued the bank for trying to back out of a $3 billion deal to buy shares of WeWork from its earliest employees and Neumann.

August 2022WeWork said its offices reached pre-pandemic occupancy levels—72%—after a heavy drop during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, when many members decided to work from home and canceled their rental contracts with WeWork, Bloomberg reported.

August 8, 2023WeWork said its losses and negative cash flows were giving the company doubt about its ability to continue operating, warning of a possible bankruptcy in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

September 6, 2023WeWork announced its plans to renegotiate “nearly all” of its leases by leaving “unfit and underperforming locations” and reinvesting in better-performing markets to cut operating costs and continue running “for many years to come.”

November 6, 2023WeWork filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and its stock fell to 84 cents a share, giving it a $44.5 million valuation.