CB Insights: Is WeWork too big to fail?

WeWork currently manages more than more than 5.2M square feet of commercial real estate in New York City alone. This puts the company in a unique bargaining position. Although it may not be healthy for the economics of the business, it’s hard to imagine that WeWork would be allowed to rapidly fail without some external help, according to the New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin.

With so much space under its management, if WeWork were to fail, its sudden departure could cause commercial real estate prices in key markets such as London and New York to plunge. This would be more problematic for investors and other interested parties — like the government — than helping prop up the company.

~ CB Insights, "WeWork's $47 Billion Dream: The Lavishly Funded Startup That Could Disrupt Commercial Real Estate," 2019