WeWork and Cushman & Wakefield Are Forming $150 Million Partnership

By Peter GrantAug. 9, 2021 8:00 am ET

Shared office space giant WeWork and Cushman & Wakefield PLC, one of the world’s largest commercial real-estate firms, are negotiating to form a $150 million partnership to navigate the new world of remote working and flexible workplaces.

As part of the alliance, Cushman would make a $150 million investment in the planned merger between WeWork and a public company later this year. That merger, expected to value WeWork at $9 billion including debt, will cap off the firm’s effort to reconstruct its balance sheet following the high-profile collapse of its planned initial public offering in late 2019.

The deal with Cushman comes as office-building owners and tenants are struggling to plan for returning tens of millions of employees to downtowns and suburban office parks after some 18 months of working from home. Many thought that Labor Day would be a major turning point. But concerns about vaccination rates and variants of the Covid-19 virus have forced many companies to delay their plans.