Re:WeWork lays off 2,400 employees
by macspoofing on Thursday November 21, 2019 @12:22PM
(#21596633)
To be clear, Neumann's $1.7 billion payout is from SoftBank shareholders. There's nothing obviously criminal about SoftBank's bailout. But I agree SoftBank didn't have to do it. WeWork was ostensibly bankrupt and SoftBank could have dictated pretty much any terms they wanted.
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Re:WeWork lays off 2,400 employees
by toomuchtodo on Thursday November 21, 2019 @12:25PM
(#21596669)
SoftBank is trying to obtain a $2.8B loan for turning around WeWork [1]. Sunk cost fallacy at scale. SoftBank should've burned WeWork and Neumann's comp to the ground, while still paying out severance to the rank and file ("shoot the hostage").
Instead, SoftBank looks incompetent, Son looks incompetent, Neumann walks away a billionaire for delivering nothing of value, and layoffs are still happening. They're doubling down on financially destructive decisions. This is what happens when you have more money and vanity than courage.
[1] https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/SoftBank2/SoftBank-in-talks... (SoftBank in talks with Mizuho and Japan banks for $2.8bn loan)
They're doubling down to save face. They're betting that WeWork can survive as a much smaller company and that in 5 years people will forget what a disaster this was.
If I owned shares in softbank, I’d be livid about him flushing more money down that hole. It makes me suspect that if WeWork collapses, softbank would go down with it.
Re:WeWork lays off 2,400 employees
by workthrowaway on Thursday November 21, 2019 @12:38PM
(#21596884)
i thought part of it were also consultancy fees for him to be a consultant for the company many years to come?