The company disclosed to prospective investors it had lost about $3.2 billion last year, the Financial Times reported earlier this week. The documents also show that occupancy rates fell to 47% at the end of 2020, down from 72% at the start of the year, before the pandemic hit, according to the newspaper.

In the interview in January, Claure argued the pandemic was helping WeWork. He said the work-from-home situation benefits the company and would continue to do so as people return to the workplace. “This is where WeWork suddenly becomes an incredible value proposition,” he said. “New habits have been developed during this pandemic.”

Mathrani will continue to lead the company after the deal. Vivek Ranadive of BowX and Insight Partners’s Deven Parekh will join the board.

BowX Acquisition Corp. is managed by Ranadive and Murray Rode, both former executives at TIBCO Software and co-founders of venture firm Bow Capital.

Eoin Treacy's view

How a global work-from-home trend can be positive for a company that offers office space is beyond me. That’s particularly true for start-ups for whom rising yields represent a challenge in raising capital.

The valuation at a heavy discount to the pre-pandemic funding rounds is a reality check for this kind of speculative hype.

Softbank will be delighted to finally offload its position. The company’s experience with WeWork also accelerated its pace of exits from other private businesses and the number of planned IPOs continues to rise.

The share continues to pause around the psychological 10,000 level as it unwinds the overextension relative to the trend mean.

The SPAC Index is steadying in the region of the February low. It has some work to do to signal a return to demand dominance.