WeWork’s CEO and co-founder Adam Neumann is stepping down from his position. He will remain the nonexecutive chairman of WeWork’s parent company, We Company. “The scrutiny directed toward me has become a significant distraction, and I have decided that it is in the best interest of the company to step down as chief executive,” Neumann said in a statement announcing his resignation on Tuesday. According to Bloomberg, some company directors were reportedly plotting to oust Neumann, who has been overseeing a series of missteps while in the process of launching the company’s initial public offering, or IPO. WeWork will reportedly name two current executives, Sebastian Gunningham and Artie Minson, as interim co-chief executives, while conducting a search for a permanent CEO.
Neumann’s departure appears to be an effort to soothe Wall Street after the IPO fluctuated wildly from the $47 billion private valuation it sold shares at in January, to then estimating the market value at a mere $15 billion earlier this month. That offering was reportedly shelved after news spread that Neumann had cut back the company’s initial valuation by more than half and changed its governance. The turmoil led investors to question how much the company is actually worth. Documents filed by We Company also suggested they were losing money, with the business taking in $1.8 billion last year but losing $1.9 billion.
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