Under Proposed Settlement SoftBank to Buy About 25% of Adam Neumann’s Stake in WeWork

Wall Street has learned that WeWork Co-founder Adam Neumann and SoftBank Group Corp. are nearing a settlement agreement where the latter would buy about 25% of Neumann’s stake in WeWork.

The payout for the former ousted CEO’s stake would be almost $500 million according to a source familiar with the matter who spoke to CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa.

If the deal should be finalized, SoftBank would purchase approximately $1.5 billion of shares from early WeWork investors, that includes nearly $500 million from Neumann.

That is half as many shares as SoftBank originally intended to buy, according to the unidentified source.

The deal would represent 10.5% of WeWork shares, with the price at $19.19 per share, said the person.

A report last month had said that WeWork was in talks to combine with a SPAC affiliated with Bow Capital Management, the source said. SoftBank reached out to Neumann following this report.

Talks between Softbank and Neumann were first reported on Monday by the Wall Street Journal.

The agreement between the two would settle a bitter legal battle stemming from SoftBank’s October 2019 rescue of the office group, people familiar with the negotiations said.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.