SPAC BowX Agrees to Merger With WeWork
New York – March 26, 2021 – Cooley advised BowX Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company or SPAC, on its agreement to merge with WeWork – a combination that will result in WeWork becoming a publicly listed company. Lawyers Dave Peinsipp, Jamie Leigh, Kevin Cooper, Garth Osterman, Eric Blanchard, Richard Segal, Sangitha Palaniappa and Natasha Patel led the team advising BowX on the transaction, which is expected to close in Q3.
The transaction, which values WeWork at an initial enterprise value of approximately $9 billion, will provide WeWork with approximately $1.3 billion of cash to continue self-funding its growth into the future. The deal will be funded with BowX’s $483 million of cash in trust, in addition to a fully committed $800 million PIPE led by investors including Insight Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Centaurus Capital, funds managed by Starwood Capital, and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock.
“This company is primed to achieve profitability in the short term, but the added long-term opportunity for growth and innovation is what made WeWork a perfect fit for BowX,” Vivek Ranadivé, chairman and co-CEO of BowX, said in a news release. “With a fantastic core business, I see WeWork as a company at an inflection point, with an incredible roster of key members coupled with the vision and leadership to digitize an enormous industry.”
WeWork Executive Chairman Marcelo Claure and CEO Sandeep Mathrani will continue to lead the company in their current roles. Following the closing, Ranadivé and Insight Partners’ Deven Parekh will join the company’s board of directors.
Founded in 2010, WeWork has continued to redefine the flexible workplace market by digitizing its global physical network. As traditional landlords look to embrace the flexible model that WeWork pioneered and the market demands, WeWork will be well positioned to offer landlords an asset-light technology platform for managing and orchestrating flexible space. WeWork intends to expand beyond its core business, enabling users to choose from their WeWork mobile app when, where, and how they work.
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