1 - https://www.npr.org/2018/08/31/643774290/wework-miguel-mckel...
Indeed; they don't really have a moat. For customers who travel a lot, there might be some network effects, but I suspect they're the minority.
I’d pay for a version of WeWork that let me camp out for $10 get self serve coffee but was drab, boring, and decidedly antisocial
Couldn't resist fixing that for you. The little pun (homonym?) has some explanatory power for the company's current position.
The wewtf link someone else posted is good, but essentially, it was burning through cash in order to grow. Its private investors (mostly Softbank) were OK with that, but the public markets weren't. They also didn't like management and corporate structure). Not being able to raise cash to continue hypergrowth and having faced a reckoning about the true business prospects and valuation, they have to cut back.
> ...focus on our core business, the fundamentals of which remain strong
I actually buy this line. At the end of the day, they're getting money for a product, so there's a business there. The main risk with We is that there's a recession, occupancy drops to 50%, and they're stuck with the leases. But that's not a unique risk.
What is unique is how massively overexposed they are to this risk.