Forty-seven billion dollars.
That was the valuation.
Not the revenue.
Not the profit.
Not the assets.
The valuation.
A company that rented office space,
decorated it nicely,
and called itself a tech company.
The people who bought that story
lost everything.
The people who didn't
made a fortune.
Let's do the autopsy.
THIS WEEK'S AUTOPSY
WeWork was not a tech company.
It was a real estate company
with a charismatic founder,
a Japanese bank with too much money,
and a story nobody bothered to fact-check.
Adam Neumann built the pitch perfectly.
Community. Consciousness. Elevation of the world's
consciousness.
SoftBank wrote a check for $4.4 billion
without blinking.
Then another.
Then another.
By 2019 WeWork had raised over $12 billion.
The valuation hit $47 billion.
Then they filed for an IPO.
For the first time, the public got to see
the actual financials.
What they found was staggering.
WeWork was losing $219,000 every single hour.
The leases it had signed were long term.
The tenants it rented to were short term.
When companies stopped renewing,
WeWork still owed the landlords.
Neumann had also been selling his own shares
while telling investors to buy.
He trademarked the word "We"
and sold it back to his own company
for $5.9 million.
The IPO was pulled.
SoftBank forced him out.
Paid him $1.7 billion to leave.
The company that was worth $47 billion
filed for bankruptcy in 2023
valued at less than $50 million.
That is a 99.9% destruction of value
in four years.
The landlords are still fighting
over what is left.
THE LESSON:
When a real estate company
calls itself a tech company —
check the lease obligations.
Long term leases plus short term tenants
is not a business model.
It is a time bomb.
And when the founder is selling his own shares
while raising money from investors —
That is your signal to exit.
Not tomorrow.
That day.
Watch the full autopsy on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@thewallstreetvulture
THE WATCHLIST
Three names I am watching right now.
These are not recommendations.
These are situations where the warning signs
from the Checklist are starting to stack up.
IWG / REGUS
Warning signs active: 4 of 10
The largest flexible workspace operator globally.
Same structural problem as WeWork —
long term leases, short term tenants.
Remote work demand is softening.
Watch occupancy rates closely.
CARVANA
Warning signs active: 5 of 10
Came back from the brink in 2023.
Debt load still heavy at over $5 billion.
Used car prices are normalizing downward.
The recovery story depends on
margins holding up.
They may not.
FISKER
Warning signs active: 8 of 10
Filed Chapter 11 in 2024.
EV startup with no manufacturing moat.
Asset sale completed.
Brand acquired out of liquidation.
Watch whether the acquirer
can actually build the car.
THE VULTURE'S PICK
Every issue I share one tool or resource
I actually use in my research.
Coming in the next issue.
— The Vulture
NEW ON YOUTUBE
The autopsy is live.
$47 billion valuation.
$219,000 lost every hour.
Gone in four years.
Watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/@thewallstreetvulture
Haven't grabbed The Vulture's Checklist yet?
It's the 10 warning signs I check before every autopsy.
Free download:
https://www.thewallstreetvulture.com/the-vulture-checklist
BEFORE YOU GO
If someone in your circle follows the markets,
watches corporate news,
or just wants to understand how money actually moves
in a collapse —
Forward them this issue.
The Vulture finds them useful.
Next issue: Toys R Us had 1,500 stores
and a debt load that never had a chance.
Private equity bought it.
Then stripped it.
Then walked away.
That autopsy drops Friday.
— The Vulture