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WeWork settles legal dispute with SoftBank

By Madison Parry

With dozens of locations across the U.S. including two in Kansas City, WeWork has settled a lawsuit dispute with SoftBank after the latter backed out of an offer to purchase stock. The settlement will give WeWork $480M, half of the original offer, and opens the way for the company to go public.

A lawsuit between American commercial real estate company WeWork and multinational conglomerate holding company SoftBank Group Corp. has been put to rest after the two reached a settlement on Friday.

WeWork provides flexible shared workspaces for technology startups and services for other enterprises and designs and builds physical and virtual shared spaces and office services for entrepreneurs and companies. SoftBank is WeWork’s company’s largest shareholder.

Back in 2019, SoftBank offered to buy billions in stock from WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann. SoftBank later backed out of the offer in 2020 with the onset of COVID-19, leading to a lawsuit from Neumann.

The recent settlement will deliver Neumann $480 million, delivering half of SoftBank’s original offer of $960 million as the conglomerate has agreed to take half the shares.

Additionally, SoftBank will spend roughly $1 billion buying stock from the other WeWork shareholders and will pay Neumann $50 million to cover his legal fees, according to the settlement.