Editorial Board
What Exactly Is WeWork Trying to Say?
The company’s public filings overflow with hype, jargon and obfuscation. To what end?
Elevating what now?
Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images
What to make of WeWork, the fashionable, unprofitable, metaphysically inscrutable $47 billion office-rental company that intends to “elevate the world’s consciousness” and potentially go public this year?
As a start, ignore the lack of profits, bewildering organizational chart, ill-advised share structure, outlandish lease obligations, expansive conflicts of interest, and general air of irrational exuberance that attends the company. Instead, focus on what WeWork says about itself in public filings and a deeper problem becomes clear.