Reports out now are saying the likely market cap of the company is less than the cash raised by the company. Speaking generally that’s typically a beyond ugly situation for non-investors hoping their stake/options is going to make them some $. Think about it... it wouldn’t be right for some employee equity/options holder to get money while investors lose money.
Haven’t seen much written about the details specific to We/WeWork, but given all the crazy governance issues identified to date with its corporate structure it wouldn’t be surprising if such clauses are very complex.
Would be interesting to see something simple, like the total value of all the employee equity, according to different IPO prices/valuations, and then compare that to the changes in the CEO's wealth on the same axis.