WeWork lost $3.2 billion last year. Now it wants to go public with a SPAC advised by Shaquille O’Neal

• WeWork lost $3.2 billion last year, down from $3.5 billion in 2019, Financial Times reported Monday.
• Now WeWork is seeking $1 billion in new funding as it hopes to go public via merger with a SPAC.
• It’s hoping for a $9 billion valuation with debt, a fraction of the $47 billion it once sought.
• See more stories on Insider’s business page.

WeWork lost $3.2 billion in 2020 as the pandemic forced its coworking spaces to shutter, down from $3.5 billion the year before, the Financial Times reported Monday.

Those losses came despite WeWork cutting its capital expenditures to just $49 million, down nearly 98% from $2.2 billion in 2019, as occupancy rates at its properties plummeted from 72% to 47%, according to the Times.

But WeWork is still eyeing a public offering, now through a potential merger with BowX, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), which counts former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal among its advisors, the report said.

WeWork declined to comment.

According to the Times, WeWork is seeking $1 billion in new funding, and hopes to go public at a valuation of $9 billion, including debt. The Wall Street Journal previously reported in January that WeWork was eying a deal with the SPAC that would value it at $10 billion.

The new valuation would be less than a fifth of the $47 billion WeWork sought when it initially announced its plans for an initial public offering in 2019. Those dreams were shattered amid revelations about the company’s shaky finances, conflicts of interest, and the wild partying culture fueled by founder and then-CEO Adam Neumann.

But one investor pitched by WeWork doubted its most recent projections, which included revenues of $7 billion by 2024, adjusted earnings of $485 million next year, and 90% occupancy rates by the end of 2022, according to the Financial Times.

Since its downfall, WeWork has been mired in legal and financial trouble. SoftBank, the company’s largest stakeholder, injected billions of additional funding into the company to help keep it afloat even as other investors sought to back out.

Neumann, after stepping down as CEO, also sued SoftBank for backing out of buying nearly $1 billion of his WeWork shares. As part of a proposed settlement, Neumann will get a $50 million payout on top of $500 million from SoftBank for buying his shares, and will leave WeWork’s board for a year, Bloomberg reported last month, helping open the door for a public offering.