WeWork is still a good business at its core, SoftBank Says

Tokyo: SoftBank Group Corp. said it believes WeWork’s core business is still good despite governance and execution challenges.

“We are still in it, we are involved, we are helping the company because we believe the idea at its core is very, very good,” said Deep Nishar, senior managing partner at SoftBank’s Vision Fund. “We will help solve WeWork’s problems with corporate governance with the next set of management,” he said at Munich’s Digital Life and Design conference Saturday.

Nishar said he doesn’t expect every one of the fund’s 80-plus companies to be successful and while the fund has had some “really good” outcomes, flexible office company WeWork hasn’t gone the way it planned.

WeWork put a sharp break on its expansion plans after it shelved an attempt to file for an initial public offering in September. Investors were spooked by steep losses and profligate spending.

The company, which SoftBank now owns more than 80 per cent of after a $9.5 billion rescue package, has sold off several business units and switched out its top management including founder Adam Neumann in an attempt to steer the business to profitability.