WeWork stock pops on reports of debt restructuring

Yahoo Finance Live anchors Julie Hyman and Ines Ferre discuss reports that WeWork is in talks to restructure its debt.

Video Transcript

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JULIE HYMAN: There's another good one to watch. That's WeWork. Shares are popping this morning on reports the company is currently in talks to raise millions in capital and restructure its outstanding debt. The shares are up 4% here this morning, WeWork, as you might recall, of course, the infamous office share company that had been founded by Adam Neumann, who is no longer with the company.

But according to Bloomberg, Yardi Systems, which is a real estate software maker, is weighing an investment in the company and that it is trying to raise some cash here. WeWork, by the way, Ines, is down 20% year to date, down 77% over the past year. So it has not participated in the bounce that we have seen in stump stocks this year. It has just kept going down.

INES FERRE: Yeah, and you have to also wonder about the market. I mean, you're looking at commercial real estate that is really difficult right now. And it's supposed to get more difficult. This thing about working in the office, working hybrid, working from home, I mean, is this a permanent change that is happening with this hybrid work, where you go into the office just a couple of days a week, where some companies have said, OK, you can work remote? Others are saying, oh, come in four days, five days a week. But those that are coming in just a couple of days a week, you have to wonder what this is going to do to the commercial real estate market, to the office spaces.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, most definitely. And over at WeWork, I mean, I was just looking back at their last results as we consider this attempt to raise cash or to get an infusion of capital. And the company's still posting EBITDA losses, so free cash negative, basically. That's what it said for its fourth quarter. Its revenue forecast for its first quarter was below what analysts had been anticipating. So yes, it's getting a little bit of infusion. I mean, look at it. It's $1.16. It's just incredible, the round trip for those of us who covered this company, as it was being touted in the private markets, and then coming public and everything.

INES FERRE: It was supposed to be a huge, massive IPO.

JULIE HYMAN: Yes.

INES FERRE: Then the pandemic--

JULIE HYMAN: It was going to be everything, the We Company.

INES FERRE: The We Company.

JULIE HYMAN: They were going to do it all, right? Well, so much for that.