Anant Yardi will not be caught up in any private jet mischief like Adam Neumann. The low-key California software tycoon is set to take over WeWork on Thursday when a federal bankruptcy court hands control of the co-working business the hustling Neumann once ran to its creditors.
Yardi, an engineer who immigrated from India in 1968, has quietly amassed a multibillion-dollar fortune over four decades selling property management software to commercial and residential landlords. Yardi Systems, the business he started with his wife Eileen, remains family-owned even as its annual revenues approach $3bn.
Less than two years ago, Yardi put in more than $200mn in equity and debt through an anonymous vehicle to prop up WeWork. He agreed to inject another $337.5mn two months ago to counter an offer from Neumann, who wanted back into the company that had funded his jet-setting party lifestyle until his abrupt exit in 2019.