If readers who have been with us for a while are curious about the new blog descriptor: "Climateer Group - A WeWoke™ Company", we heard rumors yesterday that there might be a deal and decided to honor the company that actually said: “Our valuation and size today are much more based on our energy and spirituality than it is on a multiple of revenue.".
Sort of like a Google doodle homage but with a bit less reach.
Our response to WeWork's valuation metrics was "Roger that, energy and spirituality. Over."
From MarketWatch:
WeWork is finally going public, after the flexible office space company announced Friday a merger with special-purpose acquisition company BowX Acquisition Corp. in a deal valuing WeWork at $9 billion.
Under terms of the deal, WeWork will receive about $1.3 billion, including $800 million in a so-called PIPE (private investment in public equity) with investors including Insight Partners, funds managed by Starwood Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Co., Centaurus Capital and funds managed by BlackRock.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Friday that a deal had been reached, after reporting in January that the companies were in talks.
Shares of BowX which went public in October, rose 3.2% in premarket trading. It has lost 5.1% year to date through Thursday, while the S&P 500 index has gained 4.1%.
The deal comes nearly two years after WeWork officially postponed plans for a more traditional initial public offering, amid large losses, a heavy debt load and concerns surrounding Chief Executive Adam Neumann that eventually led to his ouster.
The valuation from the deal with BowX compares with a $47 billion valuation WeWork had in the run-up to its plans for an IPO in 2019....
....MORE
Over the years that we followed WeWork, Mr. Neumann's bluster and blather came to resemble what you hear from Ponzi scheme promoters and other fraudsters. Really the only things missing were the stripper poles, for some reason fraudsters seem to like strip joints.
If interested some of those prior posts are linked in "WeWork cancels 36-floor ‘WeLive’ mixed-use Seattle residential project"
Finally, from 2017's "Faraday Future issues bombastic statement accusing former CFO of ‘malfeasance and dereliction of duty’"
Uh oh (see after the jump)....
....Our introduction to 2013's "How to Spot a Hedge Fund Fraudster":
Bombast. In my experience they are all bombastic.And my all time favorite bit o'bombast, recounted as the intro to 2007's "Planktos Highlights Real Ocean/Climate Crises & Responds to Recent Misinformation Campaigns" about a Euro-American reinsurance scam that had reverse-merged its way onto the American Stock Exchange, gotten onto the Fed Board's margin list and then, rather than doing the dump half of a pump-n-dump as they gunned it from 50 cents to $15.00, had just margined the hell out of their brokerage accounts, requested the excess buying power be wired out and skedaddled, picking up the remaining cash in the corporate bank accounts on their way out the door:
And stripper poles. You would not believe the number of stripper poles that crooks collect....
...But first, one of my favorite examples of a stock scam (I told you, I have a morbid fascination with the underbelly of the markets, it's like watching the lions approach the wildebeest at the watering hole, you don't want to see it but you can't look away):
...Peter Uttley, Equisure's chairman and a former Lloyds of London executive, took control of the company this week, assuming the chief executive post....
...Uttley said in the press release that his chairman role had been a "passive" one, but he now plans an active reorganization of the company, whose reputation has been stained by allegations that it is a scam insurance operation.......In an unusually emotional statement to the press, sent from an Equisure board meeting Friday in London, Uttley told his version of events over the summer, which eventually led to the delisting of Equisure shares on the American Stock Exchange.
He then proceeded to tell a story of three men, whom he described as "liars," "cheats," and "scallywags," who worked with law enforcement officials and the press to spread false rumors about the company with the intent of buying Equisure out at 50 cents a share, a tiny fraction of the stock's trading price of $15, before AMEX suspended trading Aug. 1."The simple truth was consumed in the belly of deception, but now has been vomited for the world to see," Uttley began.
Isn't that damn fine bloviating? It's hard to research but I think Uttley et. al. got away with $100 mil.Who's going to top "The simple truth was consumed in the belly of deception, but now has been vomited for the world to see," in a press release?
Here's Russ George of Planktos responding (I think) to Greenpeace's submission to the recent meeting of the International Maritime Organization...
Scallywags is a nice touch as well.
