Neumann ‘rebuffed’ in attempts to buy back WeWork

WeWork founder Adam Neumann has said he has been “rebuffed… at every turn” as he tries to buy back the beleaguered co-working business out of bankruptcy – and now wants the courts to intervene. Documents filed with the bankruptcy court on behalf of Neumann, his Flow Global Holdings and Nazare Asset Management said “judicial intervention is necessary” after WeWork “refused to provide equal access to existing financial and due diligence materials to the Flow Group despite the Flow Group’s repeated efforts to present its bona fide interest to acquire the debtors and to provide debtor-in-possession financing to bridge to such a sale”. Neumann and co have asked for a conference to be held on the matter on 29 April. WeWork had not responded to a request for comment by the time of publication. The company has said it expects to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US and Canada by the end of May. The filing says Neumann first approached WeWork in December 2023, following up with an NDA and due diligence request in February. “But the debtors’ advisers neither returned the NDA (despite its being in nearly finished form) nor provided any of the information needed by the Flow Group to further refine its proposal,” it added. “In a letter dated February 14, the debtors’ counsel asserted that the NDA… ‘remains unacceptable’ without further explanation.” A further deal proposal was made in March, the document said. “Mr Neumann and the Flow Group have repeatedly expressed their sincere interest in providing a value-maximising offer to purchase WeWork or its assets as part of the bankruptcy case,” it said, adding: “Despite these efforts, the debtors have rebuffed the Flow Group – often without any explanation – at every turn.” It continued: “Most notably, the debtors have consistently refused to provide any information to the Flow Group that it can use to further develop and refine its proposal, notwithstanding that the parties have had a market-standard NDA in essentially final form for 11 weeks. “The reason for the debtors’ continued refusal to provide such information, despite offers to sign an NDA, is as obvious as it is unacceptable: the debtors have no interest in pursuing all paths to maximise the value of their estates, but rather want to use the chapter 11 process to rubber stamp a pre-petition RSA [restructuring support agreement], deliver control of WeWork to the debtors’ own hand-picked buyers, obtain releases for those involved, and move on.” Photo by Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock (10455631f)