The founders retained voting control of the company when they raised outside capital. SoftBank - really, Masayoshi Son - is now buying both the voting control and the shares. Since these things have value, SoftBank is paying for them, though less than they would have 6 months ago and potentially less than they would have at the time they invested.
If you want to blame anyone, blame SoftBank for negotiating very poorly as they invested in WeWork. I’m not convinced that anyone is to blame, though, since SoftBank had every right to make that decision and all parties knew the risks. Everyone, including employees, knew and accepted that the founders controlled the company in perpetuity… which made no more sense 3 months ago than it does now. At some point, something like this - the founders or their heirs selling their control and equity - was going to happen, even if it was 5 or 50 years in the future. The company was transparently structured to put the founders first.
When the founder is as big of a toxic drag on the company image as he is, it's probably worth more than $1B to Softbank to make him go away quietly and remove any vestige of his presence.
Not saying I'd ever want to work with Neumann, but arguably he wasn't the worst of the drag. He successfully got Son/SoftBank to believe WeWork was worth up to $47B, and got a ton of money while retaining control of the company.
I wonder if WeWork might have been better off (at least in the short/medium term) if Neumann had stayed on and they'd've gone through the IPO.
It would seem crazy to me that the founder would get such a big payout, on the other hand, it also seems this could be a massive win for Softbank if Wework could get back on track?