SoftBank is paying WeWork founder and former CEO Adam Neummann nearly $1.7 billion to go away.
"It's stone-cold crazy," said Eric Schiffer, CEO of the Patriarch Organization, a technology and media private-equity firm. "I think SoftBank blinked, and Neumann walks away with one of the biggest hauls in modern history when he should have gotten very little."
The embattled office-sharing startup was fighting to stay afloat after its initial public offering failed and Neumann stepped down as CEO last month. WeWork's board this week was also weighing a buyout from JPMorgan, Business Insider reported.
SoftBank's buyout values the company at $8 billion, down from the $47 billion valuation it gave the company earlier this year. As part of the deal, Neumann is expected to sell nearly $1 billion worth of stock to SoftBank and receive $500 million in credit as well as a $185 million "consulting fee," according to The Journal.
