Monday, January 14, 2019

Programming Note: Climateer Investing Is Dropping Coverage of the Company Formerly Known as WeWork

It was fun back in 2014 when headlines like WeWork Worth $5Bil., Weally were fresh and new.

And in 2015 it offered an intellectual exercise: How To Convince Investors Your Startup Is Worth $10 Billion: "There has got to be a way to short this". And  $16 Billion Valuation WeWork Cut Forecasts as CEO Asked Employees to Change ‘Spending Culture’ "It has been a long cherished dream to figure out a way to bet against this one, links below.

Climateer Investing even took "WeWork: 'Our valuation and size today are much more based on our energy and spirituality than it is on a multiple of revenue.'" at face value:
Roger that, energy and spirituality. Over....
C.I. did not disclose our response to WeWork's mandatory veganism: strategically located bar-b-que food trucks equipped with giant fans to waft the aroma at WeWork properties.

Even when our go-to WeWork jounalist left FT Alphaville we soldiered on: 
"WeWork is getting a lot bigger, but so are its losses"
With Alexandra Scaggs leaving FT Alphaville for Barron's* it appears there is an ecological niche that needs to be filled—WeWork....
But this latest is too much.

From StreetInsider, January 8:

WeWork to rebrand to The We Company and announce a major corporate and strategic shift - Fast Company.
WeWork to rebrand to The We Company and announce a major corporate and strategic shift - Fast Company. (LINK)
"The new structure is part of Neumann’s heady ambition to push the company’s market and opportunity beyond commercial real estate. Rather than just renting desks, the company aims to encompass all aspects of people’s lives, in both physical and digital worlds, he says."
The CEO also talked about the disappointing SoftBank round.
And TechCrunch::
WeWork rebranding won’t work
The company formerly known as WeWork has rebranded as the We Company — although a better name for its network of on-demand office spaces for the newly incorporated and nominally employed, co-living spaces for the same easyJet-set and educational and coding services could be “House of Cards.”...
They should have gone with "WeWork wēbwanding won't work" for the Elmer Fudd alliteration.

When it comes public get your shortin' shoes on.
And when the stock cracks we might relent and resume coverage of The Wee Co.

Here's our parting gift, 2017's "The story of WeWork’s mysterious first investor".