WeWork, a US-based company that provides co-working spaces for freelancers, entrepreneurs and startups among others.
The company recently filed for an IPO, and in so doing had to uncover information previously considered private to the public.
Among the information released, was a US$ 5.9 million payment made by the company to its CEO, Adam Neumann, for the rights to use the word ‘We’, whose trademark is owned by him.
The company filed for IPO under the brand, ‘The We Company”. This requires the company to own the trademark to the word ‘We’.
WE Holdings LLC, is a private company which owns the trademark rights to the the word “We”. Adam Neumann is the founder/managing member at the company.
This is an odd arrangement seeing that Neumann is currently running WeWork. Prospective shareholders, analysts and business experts have raised issue with the arrangement.
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The bad press around the arrangement forced WeWork to go back on it this past Wednesday.
The controversial deal was characterized as being at “fair market value”, and is said to have been done on the orders of CEO, Mr. Neumann.
Critics have cited the trademark payment as a demonstration of WeWork’s subpar corporate governance.
WeWork has recently developed an eccentric approach to business, going by the mantra; “We dedicate this to the power of We — greater than any one of us, but inside each of us.”
