SoftBank is paying WeWork founder and former CEO Adam Neummann nearly $1.7 billion to go away.

Business Insider:

"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.

Wework is definitely a piece of work, a money-hemorrhaging bezzle whose recently ousted founder siphoned a reported $700m out of the company while self-dealing and presiding over a series of bizarre missteps (from serving tequila shots and hosting a dance party with Darryl from Run DMC at the same meeting where he announced mass layoffs to banning his employees from expensing meals containing meat while getting caught eating meat himself). Read the rest

Embattled office space startup founder Adam Neumann has been forced out of his position as the chief executive of WeWork (We Co), WSJ reports. Read the rest

Financial disclosures from Wework in support of its IPO reveal that the company loses almost $5,200/customer, and that it hemorrhaged $1.3B in the first half of 2019. Read the rest

The good folks at Improv Everywhere made a couple of old phone booths in New York City a "little more useful" by converting them into co-working spaces. Read the rest