NYT: WeWork May Lay Off 4,000 in Bid to Stabilize Self

WeWork is preparing to cut at least 4,000 jobs in a bid to achieve financial stability and those layoffs could be announced as early as this week, the New York Times reported.

As many as 6,000 employees could ultimately be laid off, one person told the Times.

Last week, WeWork told investors it lost $1.25 billion on revenue of $934 million in the third quarter — losses were up more than 150% from the same period a year ago

Meanwhile, WeWork is drawing scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over whether the co-working company violated financial rules in the run-up to its failed initial public offering, two people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg late Friday.

The agency’s enforcement division is reviewing WeWork’s business and its disclosures to investors amid a number of news articles that highlighted potential conflicts of interest and the company’s aggressive fundraising, the people said. WeWork has retained Andrew Ceresney, a top Wall Street lawyer who previously headed the SEC enforcement unit, according to the people.

The SEC’s inquiry is preliminary and may not lead to any allegations of wrongdoing, said the people who asked not to be named because the review isn’t public.

A WeWork spokeswoman declined to comment, as did Ceresney, who’s now a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York. An SEC spokeswoman also declined to comment.

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