The golden parachute which has been given to Adam Neumann worth $1.7 billion may be in for a slashing as the bosses at SoftBank are looking to trim down the rescue deal worth $9.5 billion which they had struck last month with WeWork.
The co-founder of WeWork who was also the CEO was looking to sell his stock in the company worth up to $970 million to SoftBank as a part of the tender offer of $3 billion and is in going to receive $500 million worth credit line for covering Neumann’s personal debts and get consultancy fee of $185 million across four years.
A few of the executives of SoftBank have however said that his package is very generous as the reports in media suggest.
The tender offer of SoftBank was going to begin as per schedule over two weeks ago on the 6th of November. The company has been speaking with the banks for a $2.8 billion deal for joint-financing deal for funding of stock purchases and credit line. The banks however which are its most important financers are now calling for SoftBank to cut their costs and flog assets for turning around WeWork instead of more borrowing.
The optics may involve one more factor. WeWork had laid 2,400 people off that were 20% of its workforce globally. A former employee of WeWork is also going to sue the company over the departure deal of Neumann over the argument that the consultancy payments are not comprehensible after the collapse of the initial public offering and the valuation of the company dropped under his watch. The decision has not yet been made by SoftBank and there are reports that they may proceed with their original tender offer.