San Francisco ¨C Teddy Kramer worked at WeWork from 2013 to 2015. When he left the company, he had been a director of new market development, helping the coworking startup open new offices in different regions. He¡¯d put in the time and been granted shares in the company. At first, he thought he might be able to sell them after WeWork¡¯s much-anticipated initial public offering in September, but the IPO attempt flopped.
As a backup option, Kramer and other current and ex-WeWork staff were told they would be able to sell their shares to SoftBank Group Corp. in a deal that was set to take place last Wednesday. Kramer was expecting to sell between $50,000 and $100,000, he said, and he was depending on the cash to cover expenses while he started his new business, a coworking space in San Francisco called Neon.
On Thursday, though, SoftBank sent a letter to all WeWork shareholders: The deal was off. The Japanese conglomerate, the largest investor in WeWork parent We Co., was pulling out of the agreement to purchase billions in WeWork stock from existing shareholders.
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