SoftBank Ends $3B Tender Offer For WeWork Shares

SoftBank Group has pulled a US$3 billion tender offer for WeWork shares citing closing conditions not being met, reported The New York Times.

The investment behemoth had been rumored to be getting cold feet when the WSJ reported last month that it was using regulatory investigations as a way to back out of its commitment to buy US$3 billion in shares from existing WeWork shareholders.

Under the terms of the share buyback deal negotiated last year, WeWork founder Adam Neumann had been set to receive almost US$1 billion for his shares in the co-working company. The former CEO had already been forced out at that stage after public markets balked over his managerial acumen, as we reported at the time.

In a press statement issued today SoftBank SVP and chief legal officer, Rob Townsend, wrote, “SoftBank remains fully committed to the success of WeWork and has taken significant steps to strengthen the company since October, including newly committed capital, the development of a new strategic plan for WeWork and the hiring of a new, world-class management team. The tender offer was an offer to buy shares directly from other major stockholders and its termination has no impact on WeWork’s operations or customers. The tender offer closing was conditioned on the satisfaction of certain closing conditions the parties agreed to in October of last year for SoftBank’s protection. Several of those conditions were not met, leaving SoftBank no choice but to terminate the tender offer.”

Full Content: New York Times

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