What you need to know
- WeWork's IPO dissolved this summer, eventually ending in the ousting of CEO Adam Neumann in September.
- SoftBank took over WeWork as Neuman stepped down, replacing him temporarily with two co-CEOs until a suitable replacement could be found.
- T-Mobile CEO John Legere is, reportedly, at the top of the charts of those being considered for the position, owing to his performance in turning around T-Mobile.
Reports say that WeWork company executives are considering a huge shake-up as it looks to take on a new CEO, and who better to consider than the bright and bold CEO of T-Mobile, John Legere? Legere has taken T-Mobile from a troubled company just six years ago, to a company that's pulled in millions of new customers, has merged with Metro, and now is in the process of also merging with Sprint.
WeWork's 2019 saga has been a rollercoaster by the very definition, with hopeful investors ooo-ing, ahh-ing, and screaming as the company quickly went from one of the biggest potential IPOs (initial public offering) to a bit of a trainwreck when CEO Adam Neumann left the company in September. The big push for Neumann's expulsion was led by SoftBank, the same company that owns Sprint and has done rather well for itself in 2019 since the $26 billion T-Mobile merger with Sprint was approved. Neumann left the company with a cool $1.7 billion in his pocket, and now SoftBank is running the show.
Part of the new owner's goals is to get the company back on track and trending upward, as it was just a few months ago, and they're doing in another unconventional way: by hiring another unconventional CEO. John Legere has been anything but your normal "suit and tie" of a CEO since his tenure at T-Mobile started, and while Adam Neumann appeared to be cut from the same cloth as Legere in a variety of ways, Legere's success has proven that he's the man of the hour when it comes to turning tech companies around.
Recently, T-Mobile announced a number of new "Un-Carrier" initiatives; the first since the Sprint merger was approved. In this big event, T-Mobile announced the start of its 5G network, a brand new 5G mobile plan for customers, and free unlimited 5G for first-responders. T-Mobile uses these "Un-Carrier" initiatives to debut big new features and announcements, many of them flying in the face of industry trends as Legere continues to pivot T-Mobile as the antithesis of what's the expected from a mobile network.
WeWork specializes in real-estate for offices, specifically office-sharing for companies that are too small to have their own corporate infrastructure, or for extra office space that's needed on a temporary basis. WeWork is looking to fill the role as soon as January, according to sources from the Wall Street Journal. Right now, Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham are heading the company as co-CEOs but, as they are already executives at WeWork, are looking for a single replacement to fill the role that can, once again, try to take the company public in the future.
