WeWork has reportedly agreed to merge with a SPAC in a deal that would take it public at a $9 billion valuation

A WeWork office in Beijing.

Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images

• Shared-workspace company WeWork has agreed to merge with a SPAC, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
• It planned to merge with the BowX Acquisition Corp SPAC in a deal valuing it at $9 billion, sources said.
• The deal would take it public, two years after its failed IPO attempt, in which it sought a $47 billion valuation.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

WeWork is merging with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in a deal that would value it at $9 billion including debt, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people close to the matter.

The merger with the BowX Acquisition SPAC would take the Softbank-owned WeWork public, two years after the shared-workspace company's disastrous attempt to file an initial public offering (IPO) in 2019.

The valuation is less than a quarter of the $47 billion valuation WeWork sought when it initially announced its plans for its 2019 IPO.

A SPAC is a company created solely to merge or acquire another business and take it public, making it a cheaper, faster alternative to an IPO, Insider's Martin Daks reported.

After WeWork's IPO plans fell through, SoftBank agreed to purchase $3 billion in stock from investors and employees in a bailout package in October 2019.

But SoftBank walked away from the deal in April 2020. SoftBank in February of this year reached a proposed settlement with WeWork and its former CEO Adam Neumann, where it would buy around half of its original $3 billion stock purchase, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.

This is a developing story.

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