[Barrin92]

>He created a very valuable company, worth billions of dollars

he created something that may very well lose its investors billions of dollars without ever turning a dime of profit. What the company is evaluated as on paper by people increasingly disconnected from reality isn't really meaningful.

I'm not really sure what the market function or social function is of rewarding people with billions of dollars who create money-losing machines. If anything it's an indication that some part of the system is increasingly broken.

[nostromo]

Perhaps I'm just not seeing any real victims here.

Softbank and the Saudis wanted to roll the dice on some overpriced unicorns. They went into the deal with eyes open. And it looks like they're taking a massive haircut. Play stupid games...

I do feel sorry for some WeWork employees that will lose their jobs. But, again, many of them joined hoping to get some upside when the company went public -- which was a gamble that didn't pan out. Thankfully it's a good time to be on the job market.

[filmgirlcw]

Dude, come on. They have 15,000 employees. Most of them are going to lose their jobs. Those are the victims.

I agree I don’t weep for Soft Bank or the Saudis, but plenty of people took jobs not just on the promise of IPO riches. And laying off a company of WeWork and its subsidiaries size is more than just a handful of people entering the job market — a market that isn’t as good in every city, which is something to consider since We has quite a distributed workforce.

Edited: it is 15,000 people — not 12. And most of them will end up losing their jobs. That’s a lot of people.

[smeyer]

>which is something to consider since We has quite a distributed workforce

Wouldn't a distributed workforce mean a less impactful layoff for the employees? Much better to be part of a N,000 person layoff but one of only 200 people in your town then entering a local job market with all N,000 people at once.

[luckydata]

not to mention all the people that will be affected when they inevitably default on their real estate obligations. Contractors, security, cleaning crew, small lenders... a lot of people will get hurt through no fault of their own. this kind of stuff has consequences.

[x0x0]

Employees who have choices on where to work.

Landlords who have choices about working with startups or not. Generally, industry partners on the fence about investing time in startups and choosing their business partners.

Competitors damaged by Son's misinvestment giving WeWork billions to light on fire.

Investors who didn't want to have to demand information rights and crawl though financials looking for rampant self dealing.

Founders like me who resent fraudsters taking the shine off our industry.

[xkjkls]

> But, again, many of them joined hoping to get some upside when the company went public -- which was a gamble that didn't pan out.

I'm sure many joined just because they wanted a job. We can't blame some random executive assistant for not knowing the ins and outs of the company's financial situation or the risk that they were taking. Their layoff will hurt.

[thrownaway954]

"investors billions of dollars without ever turning a dime of profit"

Too fcking bad... You do realize that this thing almost went public and as such the lost would have shifted to the shareholders who would have bought the stock while the original investors cashed out. You think those people would have had a conscience at that point. I think not. Fck all the original investors who most likely knew this company was a joke and fraud from the beginning but were hoping the IPO happened so they could walk away with more money.

[hnaccy]

Didn't he just fool rich private investors?

I'm not shedding a tear if Softbank throws their money away.