WeWork acquires a coworking startup for the first time since Neumann’s departure.

• ByStartupStory     |    January 26, 2022

We Work Inc. is making its first purchase since becoming a public company, and the first since current CEO Sandeep Mathrani took over from the company’s troubled co-founder Adam Neumann.

We Work, a coworking business with 23 sites in Texas and North Carolina, has agreed to buy Common Desk. Common Desk will continue to exist as a separate entity. The majority of Popular Desk’s sites — 19 out of 23 — are managed under management agreements, which are common in the hotel business and allow a company to run a space and get a percentage of rent revenue without having to sign a long-term lease. We Work plans to explore more management agreements in the future, according to the company.

The acquisition is closely tied to We Work’s main business, which contrasts with some of the company’s Neumann-era acquisitions, which included an online coding school and Meetup.com. Following Neumann’s departure from the company in 2019 amid a failed IPO push, many of those purchases were sold off.

We Work made another attempt at the public markets last year, this time through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition firm. We Work’s stock has dropped nearly 20% since its October IPO, giving it a market capitalization of $5.7 billion . The transaction’s price was not disclosed by We Work or Common Desk.

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