WeWork's punchy new age approach to the way we work with leases for only a month, if that is what you need, super-fast wi-fi and really nice work environments full of millennials buzzing with enthusiasm and ideas looked set to become a tech company with a dazzling IPO. But it was hit by a blast of cold reality just before their pre-listing roadshows when public investors told them to stop drinking Cool Aid and that the $47bn valuation for the company was unrealistic. It did not help that co-founder and the CEO of the company Adam Neumann cashed in more than $700m of his stake in July this year. Neumann stepped down as CEO and WeWork is now scrambling to make changes in the company to reclaim investor interest. It has also raised the question whether WeWork can really be regarded as a tech company and whether this new breed of unicorns are ready for hostile public markets. The WeWork website lists three sites in South Africa, The Link and 155 West Street in Johannesburg and 80 Strand Street, Cape Town and the company was planning to expand in South Africa with another venue in Cape Town. This may now hang in the balance as WeWork has stopped signing new leases and as Peter Grand and Keiko Morris write in the Wall Street Journal, landlords appear to have turned their backs on WeWork. – Linda van Tilburg

Virtually no one will lease to WeWork. That's a drag on NYC's office market.

By Peter Grant and Keiko Morris

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