WeWork Stumbles on Accounting Error That Tripped Many SPACs (1)

Co-working company WeWork Inc. tripped over the same accounting error that has caused scores of special purpose acquisition companies to restate, or redo, their past financial statements.

The problem, which triggered a restatement filing after the market close Wednesday, stemmed not from the company itself, but from the SPAC that took the business public. BowX Acquisition Corp., a blank-check company that merged with WeWork in October, erroneously classified a portion of its public shares as permanent equity, WeWork said in a securities filing.

The restatement notice, which also included a warning about a material weakness in internal control over ...