WeWork’s Bankruptcy Caps Swift Downfall for $47 Billion Standout

Just two years after it went public, the once high-flying real estate business WeWork Inc. filed for bankruptcy without ever having figured out how to make flexible workspaces into a profitable enterprise.

It caps a wild ride for a company that began with the idea of re-imagining staid offices as fun places to hang out and grew to a behemoth worth $47 billion at its peak. A botched 2019 initial public offering and erratic behavior by co-founder Adam Neumann started WeWork’s downfall, but the company was also battered by forces outside its control — Covid-19 lockdowns and a slow return ...