WeWork Subsidiary Meetup Lays Off 25% of Staff Amid Cost-Cutting Push
Meetup, the event organizing platform owned by WeWork, lays off a quarter of its workforce as part of a major restructuring effort. The cuts primarily affect the engineering department and follow a massive financial bailout from SoftBank.
Meetup, the event organizing platform owned by WeWork, confirms it lays off approximately 25% of its workforce in a major restructuring effort. The staff reductions primarily impact the company's engineering department as the organization strives to build a better product for its 44 million members. A company representative states that these organizational changes align with their top priority of improving the platform.
These layoffs directly stem from WeWork's aggressive cost-cutting strategy following the ouster of former CEO Adam Neumann and a collapsed initial public offering. WeWork's new leadership, currently serving as co-CEOs, actively seeks to stabilize the company's high-loss business model. The parent company even considers selling off several subsidiaries, including Meetup, Managed by Q, and Conductor, to boost its financial standing.
This subsidiary restructuring occurs shortly after SoftBank provides WeWork with a massive $9.5 billion financial lifeline. This recent funding package drastically devalues the co-working giant from an eye-popping $47 billion to just $8 billion. WeWork desperately needs to improve its balance sheet over the next few months, as the company still plans to pursue a public offering in 2020 despite losing nearly a billion dollars in the first half of 2019.