It’s been quite a fall

Contributors: Verge Staff

This summer, WeWork was expected to have one of the highest-profile IPOs ever. But then it filed its S-1 paperwork, and everything came crashing down.

The S-1 itself was a trip — it began with the phrase “We dedicate this to the energy of we,” revealed the myriad ways its own CEO Adam Neumann was a risk factor, and outlined a succession plan that, if anything happened to Neumann, let his wife or a family trustee pick a new CEO. The IPO collapsed shortly after. Then, a wild profile of Neumann came out, with a story of how he once brought a cereal box full of weed on a private jet to Israel. Under continued criticism, Neumann eventually quit — and walked away with nearly $1.7 billion as part of a buyout from SoftBank, which has since taken over majority ownership of WeWork.

This all happened in a little over two months. Now, SoftBank is trying to pick up the pieces of WeWork and move forward — and it could be a difficult road ahead. Follow all of the news and updates on 2019’s soap opera of a company right here.