Ousted WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann is reportedly nearing a settlement in his dispute with SoftBank. He could get $500 million and remain a major shareholder
Monday that SoftBank would buy around $1.5 billion of shares from early WeWork investors, including about $500 million in shares from Neumann.Neumann would get $480 million for 25% of his shares in the company. He would still remain a major shareholder in WeWork, the person said.
This is about half of what SoftBank originally agreed to purchase from Neumann as part of a $3 billion deal it abandoned in 2020, when it was going to buy. Neumann sued SoftBank after it walked away from the deal. There was no guarantee that both sides would come to an agreement, the people told the Journal, but if they did, a deal could be finalized in the next few days, they said.
This would allow WeWork to be bought by special purpose acquisition company BowX Acquisition, allowing the office-coworking company to try for its second public listing. WeWork and BowX Acquisition could reach a deal in the coming weeks, the people said.