Sep 4, 2019

WeWork CEO returns $5.9 million "trademark payment" to the company

Dan Primack, author of Pro Rata

Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for WeWork

WeWork co-founder and CEO Adam Neumann has returned around $5.9 million worth of stock to the company, which he had originally received in exchange for the "we" trademarks, according to an amended IPO registration.

Why it matters: The payment was widely criticized, including by Axios, and was playing into a pre-IPO narrative that WeWork's corporate governance was broken.

The repayment was disclosed in an amended IPO filing from Wednesday morning.

  • The new filing also showed that WeWork has added Frances Frei, a Harvard Business School professor and former Uber executive, to its board. She is the company's first female director.
  • WeWork did not disclosed any new IPO details. Expectations are that we should get proposed pricing terms next week.

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