Description: Like a number of other highly-hyped organizations, We Work, a company that was supposed to reinvent the office by giving temporary space to the workforce, has failed. We Work tallied up $16 billion in losses since introducing its first location in New York in 2010. John Andrew, a real estate consultant, said that “They were up to their eyeballs in debt, and then we know what happened with interest rates.” Tech writer and sci-fi novelist Cory Doctorow has seen this show before, describing tech hype ending in disappointment as “Here is how platforms die.”

Date:  November 19, 2023

Source:  cbc.ca

 Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/armstrong-start-ups-wework-uber-1.7032264

Discussion points:

1) As pointed out by Cory Doctorow, have you or your classmates ever felt abused as a user of a new platform that did not live up to its promise?

2) As suggested by John Andrew, do you think a company like We Work might actually have a path to success in the post-pandemic world?

3) Page 11-7 of Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making discusses the concept of the IPO – Initial Public Offering. What journal entry does a company make to record the issue of shares through an IPO?