Stepping off the WeCoaster

Hi everyone, it’s Ellen in San Francisco. For reporters like me who have covered WeWork over the years, the news of its potential demise is [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hi everyone, it’s Ellen in San Francisco. For reporters like me who have covered WeWork over the years, the news of its potential demise is just the next curve on a high-amplitude roller coaster. But first… Three things you need to know today: • Roblox shares [plunged 21%]( as daily users drop off • Biden signed [China tech investing rules]( • Disney profit [beat estimates]( Aim to achieve WeWork’s [disclosure]( this week that it has “substantial doubt” about its ability to survive made me reflect on the life cycle of a hot-and-flashy startup. When I started covering WeWork for Bloomberg in 2016, the co-working startup was seen as an intriguing and boisterous real estate newcomer. Reporters noted its beer on tap, its lakeside “Summer Camp” gatherings, its “Do What You Love” branding and its youthful, freelancer-type customers, who liked to mix work and partying. The co-founder Adam Neumann was a quotable pitchman, shooting off statements about how their stratospheric valuation and size were “much more based on our energy and spirituality than it is on a multiple of revenue.” Occasionally, journalists surfaced stories of the collateral damage of WeWork’s rise — sometimes affecting its [employees]( — but that didn’t slow its momentum. By early 2019, WeWork was one of the most valuable startups in the US, worth $47 billion to its investors. Then came fall 2019. WeWork was speeding toward an initial public offering, but as it got closer, the plan fell apart. For a period of time, there was breaking WeWork news every day: the shocking IPO prospectus, which revealed corporate governance details that sent investors running. A quick scramble to amend some of those disclosures and salvage the IPO. Neumann’s dramatic departure weeks later. The enormous bailout from SoftBank Group Corp., its biggest outside investor. Thousands of WeWork employees laid off. That fall, WeWork beat reporters developed a sense of trench-warfare camaraderie with rivals at competing publications. We would swap funny stories about details that we knew were too in-the-weeds for most readers to care about. The post-storm calm brought WeWork books, narrative podcasts (including [mine](!) and a fictionalized television show. WeWork sans Neumann was less exciting to cover, but for a while, that was a good thing for the company. They wanted to project a sense of stability and level-headed growth, especially after another setback from the Covid-19 pandemic. These days, I often hear people say they assumed WeWork had already gone out of business. They apparently figured WeWork’s super-heated rise would be paired with a quick flameout. In fact, its decline has been slower. WeWork managed to go public in 2021, but its stock has sunk steadily. It’s down 91% this year and trades at 13 cents. WeWork’s warning on Tuesday reminded me of a presentation that SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son made in late 2019, after his company bailed out WeWork and was trying to project a sunny future for the investment. The chart on Son’s [slide]( featured a V-shaped line where a plummeting arrow was projected to shoot back up. “Turnaround,” the slide declared in big type. The fine print above it reflected the sort of ebullient optimism that fueled WeWork from the beginning: “Aim to achieve.” —[Ellen Huet](mailto:ehuet4@bloomberg.net) The big story China’s largest tech companies Alibaba Group and Tencent have gained $66 billion in market value since May’s end, propelled by expectations of a gradual return to pre-crackdown growth and a litany of official promises to unshackle the private sector. Yet some investors warn the celebration [celebration may be premature](. One to watch [Watch the Bloomberg Technology interview]( with the CEO of Marqeta, a partner of Cash App. Get fully charged The US Supreme Court let Apple keep its App Store payment rules in place for the time being, [rejecting an Epic Games request]( that would have let developers start directing iPhone users to other purchasing options. Online dating can be rife with human problems, from ghosting and harassment to chats that don’t lead to dates. AI can solve those issues — at least, a number of [new startups]( say it can. Upstart’s breakneck stock rally is losing momentum after the lending platform that uses AI [provided a disappointing outlook](. Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, [criticized PayPal]( for its introduction this week of a stablecoin. 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