Softbank ends $3 billion offer for WeWork stock

Softbank on Thursday ended its offer to pay as much as $3 billion for stock in shared office-space company WeWork after it said conditions were not met to complete the deal.

The Tokyo-based conglomerate cited "multiple, new and significant pending criminal and civil investigations" by the US Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission into WeWork's financing and business practices that were launched after the stock-purchase deal was announced last fall.

In a statement, WeWork said it was "surprised and disappointed" by SoftBank's decision and vowed to "evaluate all of its legal options, including litigation".

Cancellation of the stock-purchase agreement is separate from SoftBank's earlier $5 billion bailout of WeWork.

Adam Neumann, founder and former CEO of WeWork parent We Co, had the right to sell up to $970 million in stock to SoftBank as part of last fall's deal that led to his resignation from the company's governing board.

WeWork's revenue has taken a hit during the coronavirus pandemic, as many people began working from home to avoid spreading the virus.

Last year, major investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup and Barclays, lined up to underwrite WeWork's planned initial public offering (IPO). The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq competed for WeWork's listing.

WeWork, billed as a "golden unicorn" because it was valuated at more than $1 billion when it filed to go public, expected to raise about $10 billion in its IPO and planned to use the money to expand. WeWork withdrew the deal in September 2019, and without the IPO, the company nearly ran out of cash.

In its IPO registration statement, WeWork said: "We pioneered a 'space-as-service' membership model that offers the benefits of a collaborative culture, the flexibility to scale workspace up and down as needed and the power of a world-wide community, all for a lower cost. We have disrupted the largest asset class in the world — real estate."

Despite its lofty goals and rhetoric, WeWork never developed a clear path to profitability. The company leased and renovated buildings worldwide, including in China, but expenses always outstripped income.

In November, it said losses totaled $4.7 billion. The company's estimated valuation shrank to about $7.8 billion from as much as $47 billion prior to the IPO.

SoftBank invested in the company when WeWork's valuation was high and IPO prospects were strong. When the IPO was shelved, it then assembled a bailout of the company.