The Worth of WeWork?

Business Insider posted a recent article entitled, “NYU professor calls WeWork ‘WeWTF,’ says any Wall Street analyst who believes it’s worth over $10 billion is ‘lying, stupid, or both’.”

Here’s my take on this article: WeWork looks like any other office landlord, just wearing a different suit. Outside of being cool, WeWork owns nothing proprietary, and as I have argued before, there is no barrier to competition from real landlords. If it were such a great concept, office property owners and developers would be providing more flexible space options. But they wouldn’t be able to obtain financing because debt service relies on a steady and reliable income stream—which this concept certainly is not. WeWork might pull off this IPO because of the current market euphoria, but they won’t be getting any of MY money.