Ousted co-founder Adam Neumann offers to buy back WeWork for over $500 million

Ousted WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann has bid more than $500 million to buy back the office-sharing group, it was reported. Adam Neumann submitted the offer although it was unclear as to how he would finance such a deal, the Wall Street Journal and CNBC reported, citing people in the know. The co-founder seeks to buy the company out of bankruptcy, according to a letter to WeWork, news agency AFP reported. 
A representative for Adam Neumann’s real estate company, Flow, confirmed that a bid was submitted saying as per Bloomberg, “Two weeks ago, a coalition of half a dozen financing partners — whose identities are known to WeWork and its advisers — submitted a potential bid for substantially more than the Wall Street Journal reported.”
WeWork went into bankruptcy in November after which its major creditors were set to take control of the company. The company which was once the biggest private renter of office space in Manhattan also has co-working spaces in cities across the globe. Although at the time, investors grew wary of the company’s business model and about Adam Neumann’s reliability as a boss.
Adam Neumann, who was known for his abrupt decisions in the company, was dismissed by the Board of Directors in September 2019. This happened shortly after the company’s stock market debut was postponed. He was forced out of the company with a $1.7 billion exit package and the company’s value was slashed to $8 billion at the time. 
WeWork was disrupted by Covid-19 pandemic as it emptied offices while workers went remote. The company never fully recovered since.