26 March 2021
WeWork said Friday that it has agreed to be taken public by a SPAC sponsored by Vivek Ranadivé's Bow Capital Management.
Why it matters: This is a sunny ending to a very dark year for WeWork, which was already under pressure before the pandemic crushed co-working.
By the numbers: The deal would give WeWork an implied valuation of around $9 billion.
- That's a dramatic discount to its $47 billion valuation in early 2019, but a slight improvement on where WeWork was valued in a SoftBank-led bailout round later that same year.
- In between was WeWork's abandoned IPO process, and the ouster of founding CEO, Adam Neumann.
Timing: Word of a SPAC deal for WeWork first surfaced weeks ago, and was expected to be announced after SoftBank and Neumann reached a legal settlement related to a failed stock tender offer.
- But sources say that there were some difficulties in obtaining PIPE financing for the deal, as that market has been tightening.
- The PIPE is an $800 million outlay from firms like Insight Partners, Starwood Capital Group and Fidelity.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.