With its trendy locations and offers of free beer, WeWork succeeded in making flexible office space cool. There was just one problem: the company could not make it pay.
WeWork’s slide into US bankruptcy on Monday, under the weight of more than $13bn in office lease obligations, has cast a shadow over flexible workspace providers on both sides of the Atlantic and sharpened fears about financial distress for office landlords struggling with the move to working from home.
WeWork chief executive David Tolley said in the company’s bankruptcy filing that it had amended 590 leases and cut future rent obligations by $12bn, but could “not overcome the legacy real estate costs and industry headwinds”.